This collection of traditional cuentos, told in English and regional Spanish, unfolds within Usner's memoir of his grandmother, Benigna Ortega Chavez, and their summers together on the Plaza in Chimayo, New Mexico.

Listen to this authentic voice from the far land of New Mexico's past. Pull up a chair. Throw away your watch. The author will tell you a story. She was born more than a century ago, and her stories were born centuries before that. Now through the graceful agency of her grandson, Don Usner, her stories will live on, told and retold, shared widely, the irrepressible spirit of old New Mexico captured and held between these covers.