When he is just six years old, Secundino Fernandez must leave Havana, Cuba—his home and the city of his heart—for the first time. Over the next few years, Dino and his family are forced to move several times until 1959, when Fidel Castro and the Communist Party take over the Cuban government. In the middle of those explosive and world-altering events, the Fernandez family take its biggest leap yet.

In his sketchbook, a homesick Dino tries to capture and collect the beauty of Havana: the domed and magnificent Palacio Presidencial, the graceful porticoes, the pastel-colored stucco homes and storefronts, the turquoise water of the Caribbean, and the magical sparkle of a city at night, alive with music and glamour.

Eventually Dino Fernandez arrives in the United States, where his memories of Havana never dim, where he builds a miniature version of his beloved city, and where, fifty years later, award-winning writer Rosemary Wells finds him and asks him to share his story.

From the dust jacket