One moment--that's all it takes to lose faith in everyone. Amalia's grades have been slipping. She's been worried about Maggie, whose mom's drinking has gotten out of control. At least Amalia and her new boyfriend, Brendan, are getting along great--on a movie date, she even kisses him for the first time. But then, while she is waiting outside the theater, several drunk girls assault her and call her racist names. Shaken, Amalia can't help thinking that maybe Palo City isn't the place she thought it was. She begins to shut down--and shut out Brendan and her friends. Planning her parents' twenty-fifth anniversary party, she starts to wonder if she should even invite her extended Hispanic family to this town. Can her friends and boyfriend reassure her that she belongs in the same world as they do?