Marc Crapuchettes emigrated from the town of Asasp in France to the United States around 1884 and worked in a laundry in Oakland. His brother Jean followed in 1887 and also became a laundryman, eventually running his own laundry in San Francisco. Jean Crapuchettes and Jeanne Castets married, and one of their children was Emile Crapuchettes. The book recounts the stories of the several French families that became related to the Crapuchettes in the San Francisco Bay Area and their origins in France.