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.

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.

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.

When the entire family goes into the hills to collect piñon nuts, Josefina hopes to find the most in order to make Tía Dolores proud of her.

Josefina and her sisters are excited when energetic young Aunt Dolores arrives at the rancho, bringing new ideas, new fashions, and new challenges, but they worry the changes will make them forget Mamá, especially as Christmas approaches.

Josefina discovers that she has a gift for healing when she tends an orphaned baby goat, finds the courage and creativity to mend her family's broken trust in an americano trader, and seeks to keep her family whole and happy when ́Tía Dolores plans to leave.