When Cecilia is hired by Mrs. Woodard, she doesn t expect to find a new life and a link to her own past. Brazilian immigrant to the USA Cecilia is hired by the wealthy seventy-eight year old Elena Woodard to be her fulltime caregiver. Elena gives her journal with her history and her most intimate secrets to Cecilia to translate into English. Inspired by the older woman s story of her life in Brazil, Cecilia tells how she fled Brazil with her mother, crosses the border from Mexico into the United States, and their struggles to survive in the new country as illegal immigrants. When Elena dies, a new future is created for Cecilia. A novel about sacrifice, friendship, love, and the yearning to belong."