Lucy, a 19 years Caribbean young, arrives in United States to work as an au pair in the house of a wealthy family. In this city, where everything is strange for her, she tries to escape the past and restart a new life. But the memories keep her from being happy; Lucy thinks that she is not going to be an adult woman until she leaves behind the troubled relationship with her mother. Unluckily, there are many things that remind her in this new life. It is a book full of autobiographical references, in which Kincaid returns to delve into her inner world with a strange force both mysterious and challenging.