It is 1960 and Reyes Cordova has just completed an important leg of his coming-of-age journey in Cibola, a New Mexico community isolated from twentieth-century America. Now that he has graduated from high school and gained confidence, Reyes is ready to embrace a new chapter at Coronado State University.

At college, Reyes encounters the best and worst of human behavior hidden behind the curtain that separates academia from normal society. While faculty demands an unholy worship of esoteric knowledge, Reyes finds comfort in new friendships. Meanwhile, his cousin, Claudia, and high school friend, Marla, wrestle with demons of their own. Claudia is skeptical of the college dream. Marla is a mystic who scares people into thinking she can read minds. After Reyes finds hope in a fatherly figure, the man eventually reveals the loss of his beloved wife is clouding his judgment and perhaps his sanity. As Reyes finds part-time work that brings new issues to light, he soon discovers his name still connects him to Cibola and the discrimination that surrounds his identity.

In this continuing tale of courage and struggle, a young Hispanic man becomes more Americanized as he enters college and attempts to break away from the tentacles of ancestral norms.