This is such a wonderful and complex book that I’m a little unsure where to start with the review. It is a book of two stories: immigration and the LGBQAI+ experience. 
The prologue of the book begins with Paz, a poor Filipino who trains as a nurse, marries Pol, a doctor and part of the powerful de Vera family. They move to the states, hoping for a better life. 
When the novel actually starts we instead follow Hero de Vera. She has just landed in the states to stay with her uncle Pol and his wife, Paz. She too was training to be a doctor in the Philippines, until a few years in she joins the anti-Marcos resistance (New People’s Resistance) and gets captured. Only her de Vera name kept her alive. Her parents wanted nothing to do with her afterwards, so uncle Pol takes her in. 
Through flashbacks we learn what happened to Hero, what it was like for her back in the Philippines, the beginning of her time with the NPA, her capture, release and recovery. 
Meanwhile the story of her time in the states is a slow, meandering, slice-of-life tale of the Filipino migrant experience. Hero has to learn to open up to people again, to let them in, especially one particular lady. 
I genuinely loved this book. It wasn’t one I could dip in and out of, but one that required a good long sit down reading session, but that makes it all the better. My only gripe was the untranslated Tagalog, Pangasinan and Ilocanos. While they added authenticity and reflect the natural way these characters would have spoke in real life (if they were real), I just would have appreciated some translations, even if they were in footnotes.