Camino goes to the airport on her birthday expecting Papi; the arrivals screen goes blank and flight 1112 is announced as crashed.

Yahaira is pulled from school and Mami tells her that the tail snapped on Papi's plane, sending it into the ocean.

Papi's gold tooth is found in the wreckage of flight 1112, confirming his death to the family.

Tío Jorge produces Papi's will at a family gathering, revealing Papi's wish to be buried in the Dominican Republic.

Mami accepts the airline's $500,000 advance payment and forbids Yahaira from attending Papi's burial in the Dominican Republic.

Tía Solana tells Camino she has a half-sister and that she holds a legal claim to the airline settlement money.

Camino searches social media and sends a friend request to Yahaira, a stranger who turns out to be Papi's other daughter.

Mami tells Yahaira that Camino's mother was her childhood friend and explains how Papi secretly led a double life.

Camino demands $10,000 from Yahaira over video call in exchange for letting her attend Papi's funeral in the Dominican Republic.

Yahaira secretly buys a plane ticket to the Dominican Republic using Mami's credit card and sneaks out of the apartment at night.

Camino and Yahaira meet in person for the first time when Yahaira arrives at the airport in Sosúa.

Mami discovers Yahaira is gone, travels to the Dominican Republic, and joins both sisters for Papi's loud neighborhood funeral procession.

El Cero attacks Camino on the beachfront after discovering she is carrying thousands of dollars in cash in her bag.

Yahaira, Mami, and Tía Solana arrive at the beach together and force El Cero to return Camino's money and passport.

Mami uses her family connections to expedite Camino's emergency visa, and Camino boards a plane to New York with Yahaira.

When flight 1112 crashes, Camino and Yahaira Rios—half-sisters living on different continents—are thrown into grief without knowing each other exists. As both girls struggle with loss, their father's secrets slowly unravel, revealing his second family and the airline settlement money both can legally claim. After learning she has a sister, Camino reaches out on social media, setting off a chain of events that draws them toward one another. Yahaira defies her mother to fly to the Dominican Republic, where the sisters finally meet and bury their father side by side. El Cero's violent attack on Camino forces the women of both families to stand together on the beach, changing the course of all their lives. The novel ends with Mami stepping in as Camino's guardian and Camino boarding her first plane toward the future she always dreamed of.

The headline events that bring two sisters together after their father's death.

Camino and Tía Solana make a morning house call to tend to a neighbor bedridden with cancer.

Yahaira dutifully answers the flood of condolence phone calls while Mami is too overcome with grief to speak.

A neighborhood vigil gathers outside Camino's home to pray for Papi, showing his deep standing in the Sosúa community.

Yahaira urges a grief-stricken Mami to attend a vigil near the crash site, but Mami retreats wordlessly to her room.

Yahaira and Mami attend a community grief counseling forum but feel so overwhelmed by emotion that they decide not to return.

El Cero grabs Camino's wrist at the beach and tells her she already owes more than she knows.

Camino and Tía Solana visit a priest about Papi's funeral wearing defiantly contrasting black and white dresses.

Camino and Tía Solana deliver Carline's premature baby during a neighborhood blackout; the baby's first breath coincides with the lights returning.

Yahaira leaves a black queen chess piece at the memorial set up outside Papi's pool hall.

Tío Jorge calls Tía Solana to relay news about the airline payout and Papi's second family in New York.

After receiving Yahaira's questions and response, Camino sends back a brief reply: Hello. Yes. We should talk.

Mami writes a large check from the airline settlement to her cousin Wilson to fund his upcoming wedding.

Camino picks up the wired $10,000 from Western Union and tapes the cash behind Papi's portrait on Tía Solana's altar.

Unable to go to the beach, Camino leads Yahaira to a river to swim; Yahaira feels her competitive streak return.

Carline visits with news that baby Luciano is breathing better; Camino proposes making Carline Tía Solana's apprentice healer.

While the headline events drive the main plot, smaller moments reveal the texture of Camino's and Yahaira's daily lives and the communities holding them up. From tending the sick in Sosúa to a grief counseling session in Queens, both sisters are surrounded by neighbors, friends, and family trying to help them cope. El Cero's escalating harassment and mounting financial pressures create a growing sense of urgency in Camino's world, while Yahaira retreats into numbness at home. After the sisters begin corresponding and the money is wired, quiet but meaningful exchanges signal the bond slowly forming between them. The pool closes with small acts of continuation—the sisters swimming together in a river and Camino arranging for her friend Carline to carry on Tía Solana's healing work after she is gone.

The supporting moments that shaped each sister's world before and after the crash.

Camino spends the night alone on the porch waiting for Papi's miraculous return, finally accepting at dawn that he is gone.

The day after a sexual assault on the subway, Yahaira discovers Papi's secret marriage certificate to Camino's mother in his belongings.

El Cero appears at the shore after Papi's death and lingers lasciviously, signaling that Papi's payments to keep him away have ended.

Yahaira fights the impulse to ask Papi not to board his flight on his last night at home; it is their final goodbye.

Camino's guidance counselor reveals she has missed scholarship filing deadlines and risks having her graduation significantly delayed.

El Cero tells Camino a stranger was asking for her home address, making his threat to expose her location explicit.

Camino joins Tía Solana's drum circle ceremony and dances through the night, praying herself free of El Cero's growing threat.

Camino finally answers Yahaira's video call and the two sisters come face to face over the internet for the first time.

Yahaira kneels at Papi's closed casket during his New York wake and holds back tears by remembering his advice about composure.

Sharing a dark room on their first night together, the sisters discuss ghosts and Camino says Papi will be wherever they carry him.

While inspecting the altar, Yahaira finds the $10,000 taped to Papi's portrait—the first sign that Camino is planning to flee.

Camino finds the marriage certificate in Yahaira's bag and learns Papi only married her mother after Yahaira was already born.

Mami sits with Camino on the porch and admits she stayed away because seeing Camino meant facing her old friend's betrayal.

At the consulate interview, Camino tells the official she plans to study premed at Columbia; her emergency visa is approved.

At the airport gate Tía Solana shoos a hesitating Camino forward, and Camino boards her very first plane beside Yahaira.

Beneath the main plot lies a quieter story of private crossings—moments when each sister steps past a threshold she cannot uncross. Yahaira's discovery of Papi's marriage certificate, her silent last goodbye, and her first stunned video call with Camino each mark a decisive shift in who she is becoming. For Camino, El Cero's tightening threats, the desperate act of stealing her sister's passport, and the devastating truth of the marriage certificate push her to her lowest point. The climax of this inner journey arrives when Camino reads the certificate and realizes Papi did not marry her mother until after Yahaira was already born, shattering her sense of where she stood in her father's life. Mami's honest reckoning with Camino on the porch and the approval of the emergency visa finally give Camino the footing she has always needed. The pool closes at the airport gate, where Tía Solana shoos Camino forward and Camino takes her first flight toward a new life.

The revelations, private turning points, and emotional shifts that define each sister's journey.

Elizabeth Acevedo

Novel/Book in Verse

Fiction

Guide