Mercedes "Merci" Suárez, the eponymous heroine, is a sixth grade scholarship student at an elite private school in South Florida.

Merci Suárez is a Cuban-American student starting the sixth grade (her second year) at Seaward Pines Academy, which she and her older brother Roli attend on scholarship.

That was before she met Edna Santos, started babysitting her cousins, became a Sunshine Buddy, and to top it all off, her grandfather (Lolo), her main supporter, has Alzheimer's disease.

Merci is also an amazing, budding soccer champion, who is so good, that she can “Play for za Feefa” says Simon (one of her dad’s football friends).

Medina drew on her own experience growing up near her extended family as well as the history of her mother's cousins, who lived in three neighboring houses in Florida.