Josefina and her sisters distrust learning to read and write, as well as other changes their Tía Dolores is bringing to the household, because they fear they will lose their memories of their mother.

Nine-year-old Josefina, the youngest of four sisters living in New Mexico in 1824, tries to help run the household after her mother dies.

Josefina hopes to become a "curandera" or healer like Tía Magdalena, and she is tested just before her tenth birthday when a friend receives a potentially fatal snakebite.

Meet Josefina Montoya, a nine-year-old girl growing up in New Mexico in 1824. Josefina and her sisters have been struggling ever since Mamaa died a year ago. When Mamaa's sister, Taia Dolores, comes to live on their rancho, the girls are overjoyed. But Taia Dolores has lots of new ideas! She starts a family weaving business. And she teaches the girls to read, something Mamaa never learned to do. Josefina worries that all of Taia Dolores's changes...