Tells the story of Jose Cemi, who, in the wake of his father's premature death, comes of age in turn-of-the-century Cuba.

Beto Milanes, the night watchman at a graveyard in the Florida resort town of Caracol Beach, is a guilt-ridden Cuban war veteran. Tormented by memories and hallucinations, he yearns to die but is unable to take his own life. Instead, he decides to force someone-anyone-to kill him. That decision sets in motion a night of violence that draws an odd assortment of characters into Beto's orbit. In scenes that range from the jungles of Angola to a seedy...

Stories from Cuba by writers at home and in exile, set before and after the revolution. The title story is on a street urchin, An Unexpected Interlude between Two Characters is on lesbians, and Ten Years Later is on a woman's return to Cuba from abroad.