Nelida, an aging Puerto Rican immigrant, opens her New York City bodega in the early morning with her husband. Their store serves several blocks of projects, and are particularly well-liked for their generous acceptance of credit, though they make sure not to overextend themselves or stay open late. They like to dedicate that time instead to their young grandson Esteban. His father and their son had left six years prior back to Puerto Rico and since refused to return, occasionally sending letters to reiterate that fact. One such letter arrived last night and now Nelida asks her husband about it, who lies and hides it from her to protect her from remorse. Determined to find the letter anyways, Nelida goes inside to look for it in the hour before the bodega opens.  She too has often had dreams of returning to Puerto Rico, and in that peaceful hour she drifts back to her time there. She met her husband when he was selling flavored ice there, and his restlessness carried them to the U.S. Now she thinks she would trade in all the passion of their early relationship for one more night with their whole family together. Nelida knows her son left because he was afraid the bodega would consume his life the way it did theirs; with no one to relieve them or shoulder some of the burden, the couple are unable to leave without losing customers and livelihood. With fifteen minutes left before the store opens and she must vigilantly watch the customers, she gives up on finding the letter and concludes her husband must have hidden it. She instead transports herself back to Puerto Rico. She finds herself at the house of an old sweet ice seller from her childhood, and dreams of going inside and swallowing one of her frozen desserts.