After her father's death, Sarah Rutledge returns from North Carolina to Nicaragua in an attempt to prevent the family's property from being expropriated by the Sandinista government. The novel begins with Sarah's childhood on the coffee farm where her British-American family has lived for almost a century. Natural disasters, civil conflicts, and political changes force her to ponder who belongs in Nicaragua, just where she belongs, to whom she belongs, and what belongs to her. Author John Keith's life was significantly shaped by two social transformations of the twentieth century, the civil rights movement in the United States and the new vision of mission and development by churches in Central America. In
Canebrake Beach: A Novella and Four Short Stories
(2012) he reflected on the relationships of black and white people in the South over a span of seventy years. In
Nicaraguan Gringa: Claiming a Home
, he explores the evolving relationships of nations and their citizens as ruling regimes ebb and flow.