[1] It is set in a fictional facility named Golden Oaks, also called "The Farm", where women serve as surrogates for wealthy clients.

The novel switches between four perspectives of the women involved, including Jane Reyes, Evelyn "Ate" Arroyo, Reagan McCarthy, and Mae Yu.

The characters in the book were partly inspired by the many Filipina domestic workers she met who shared her ethnic background but lacked the opportunities she herself had.

[2] Jane Reyes is a Filipino domestic worker and single mother living in a dormitory in New York, with her infant daughter Amalia.

When Jane loses her job as a baby nurse, her elderly cousin Evelyn Arroyo, whom she refers to as "Ate," convinces her to join Golden Oaks.

Moreover, she gets into trouble with Mae Yu, Golden Oak’s executive manager, resulting in a cancellation of Jane’s scheduled visit with Amalia.

[4] Additionally, the novel re-examines the idea of the American Dream and how success in America also depends on happenstance and luck, which many immigrants never experience.

[8] The novel was nominated for an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work – Debut Author,[9] as well as long-listed for the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize.

"[6] Los Angeles Review of Books criticized the ending as "too easy and ultimately unsatisfying" but praised Ramos' "ability to explore the nuances of these questions in the first place — in tight, spare prose, with well-placed plotting, no less".