This work of autobiographical fiction tells the story of Magda-a girl bewildered by the political upheaval in her native Uraguay-as her life comes under seige, and the subtle and overt results of her political activism. Magda's childhood in the 1960s in Montevideo, the capital city of Uruguay, is one of small pleasures: sitting beneath the poinsettia tree in her yard, meeting her friends by the banks of the Rio de la Plata, and learning the rules that her culture ordains for young women of privilege. But as Magda grows up, her comfortable world becomes frightening in ways that she has never imagined it could. As her government increasingly turns on its own people in both subtle and overt acts of terror, Magda's family and friends come under threat. Sent to the United States for a year of school, Magda realizes how her own passivity has contributed to the fear that now grips her country. The events she experiences after her return to Montevideo give her the courage to join the underground struggle against the government-a fateful decision that draws not only her, but all those around her, into unexpected danger.