Set over the course of the Fourth of July weekend, it follows the titular character, an Afro-Colombian trans woman who returns to Brooklyn, New York after spending twenty years incarcerated in a men's prison.

In 1993, 22-year-old Carlotta Mercedes accidentally becomes involved in the robbery of a liquor store by her cousin while travelling to a party, during which a woman is shot and permanently disabled.

Following her fifth meeting with the parole board, Carlotta is surprisingly released from prison a year and a half early, and travels back to New York City to live with her family just before the Independence Day holiday.

During the course of the weekend, Carlotta tries to avoid contact with alcohol while looking for work and reconciling with old friends, including Doodle, whose party she was travelling to the night she was arrested.

During the course of the day, Carlotta struggles to fight her impulses triggered by her traumatic experiences, and jeopardizes her freedom several times, including by shoplifting a designer label shoe, crashing a car, and getting into a verbal altercation with Ibe.

Panicked, Carlotta visits Coney Island, where she meets an old friend, consumes substances, and wakes up the next morning, having slept on the beach overnight and been robbed of her money.

[10] In Southern Review of Books, Rachel León said "[b]y drawing such a vibrant main character readers can’t help but fall in love with, Hannaham asks us to consider others in Carlotta’s situation and challenges us to give a shit about what happens to them".