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

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.

When Tía Dolores, the beloved aunt who has cared for the Montoya family since the death of their mother, announces that she is planning to leave, Josefina and her sisters try to find a way to change her mind.