Garcia opens the book with a story from her time working at Nuevo Día, an addiction clinic located in the Española Valley. She describes sitting outside with three patients, each of whom is eagerly awaiting their next round of medicine. Garcia encourages the patients to join her on a walk to the river. John carries out the full walk with her, but when they reach the river, they find a heroin cooker and syringes. John declares that the river is dead, a stark contrast to the vibrant river of his childhood. This introduces the idea that the personal struggles of individuals in the Española Valley parallel this environmental decay and the loss of land and opportunities for self-determination in the community.

Garcia argues that loss and space are intrinsically connected and that a person’s experience is shaped by how these contexts intertwine. The rate of heroin addiction in Española Valley cannot be understood outside of the context of the history of the land and the effects of colonization. Situated between Santa Fe and Taos, the Española Valley consists of the Rio Grande and its badlands. Española marks the first Spanish colonial settlement in the Southwest, which dates back to the 16th century.