Continuing where How Green Was My Father left off, Dodge and family take up residence in Guatemala City where they quickly learn about the economic benefits of living south of the border. Dodge spends a short stretch in the Guatemala City calabozo as a result of a traffic smack-up with a carload of cops. They attend a fiesta on a coffee finca, or plantation—but not before David gets caught between a mule and a barbed wire fence—and visit friends in Tela, Honduras, by way of Tegucigalpa, and learn oogly-boo. After a year and a half of housekeeping in Guatemala they set out for new adventures, Santiago, Chile being their destination.