This non-fiction account of the planning, construction, staffing and running of a fully-operational Cuban sugar plantation in the 1920s and 30s was inspired by a series of letters written by Ralph Snow Carpenter to his wife Constance. The tale begins as Carpenter makes his initial journey south from Boston, MA to Macareno, Cuba in 1920. For the next 14 years Macareno was to be the home of the Carpenters, along with their two young daughters Doris and Joanne, until their final departure to Provincetown, MA in 1934. Photographs, as well as anecdotes and remembrances of people who lived and worked at the plantation, bring alive a portrait of life on a Cuban plantation 100 years ago.