Tracing the fortunes of the Portuguese cleaning women Quiteria and Maria da Graca, as well as those of Andriy, a Ukrainian immigrant, this novel original and tragic, comic and subversive, ironic and celebratory acts as a prophetic portrait of current Portuguese society. In the travails of its protagonists, readers experience the daily struggles of the lower and immigrant classes in the Lusitanian country. On a more intimate scale, however, the story, particularly in the relationship between Quiteria and Andriy, illustrates the power of the things that unite individuals and love s power to bloom even in the unlikeliest circumstances."