Rosa, a young woman married to an abusive husband, tries to cook tostones on her own, with no success. She manages to both burn and undercook them. She knows that her husband would refuse them, but her secret lover, Yauba, would not be cruel enough to criticize her. Yauba works as a chef in a dining facility for college students, and every day, international students--mostly girls--come to eat and ignore him except to ask about ingredients. He receives word that he has been suspended at work alongside multiple other men for sexual harassment, though it is clear that he did not do anything wrong and is only being lumped in with other men. The accuser, Connie, reads as white and does not know the names of her fellow employees; many of them are immigrants from places like Cuba and the Dominican Republic. Yauba's heritage is Puerto Rican. This means that he is not an immigrant, but his boss pretends not to know this; he recently promoted Yauba but did not offer him a pay increase. He promised to promote Yauba to assistant manage, but when the time came, he promoted a young white man instead. Yauba tries to stifle his anger. At home, Yauba teaches Rosa how to properly cook tostones. He explains to her that he has been cooking forever and values the mix of cultures present in his food. Puerto Rican food contains African influences and ingredients because slaves were held there. Rosa never knew this, despite her Puerto Rican heritage. Rosa goes home to visit her parents. Her father's kidneys are failing, so her mother's entire life revolves around taking him to doctor's appointments and cooking him special meals. Rosa asks her mother if she knew that there were slaves in Puerto Rico, and her mother says yes. She feels neglected as her mother bustles off to serve Rosa's father. Rosa goes over to Yauba's house again and believes herself to be in love with him as she eats more of his food. He shares that his goal is to open a restaurant named after his aunt, who taught him to cook. Rosa starts crying because her husband is very cruel about their shared heritage and enjoys taunting her because she is not fluent in Spanish. She tells Yauba that she wants to go with him when he opens his restaurant. He promises to show her a special beach; he returns a few minutes later with a pair of his clothes and tells her to change. He runs a bath and guides her inside it, then sits down beside her. They embrace and pretend they are at the beach, where no one can abuse them or pull them apart.