A Jaguar on the Roof is a story about immigration, discrimination, and the struggle to make a place in a poor and violent place. This narrative describes the strivings of one such family, and the realization that vigilance and valor are sometimes necessary in such a wary world. So starts a tale of familial sacrifice and personal redemption: "Night rain fell upon the small stone house of Luis Sanchez. "Dark droplets plummeted down with the steady strength of the many, washing along the worn slate roof in ever-changeable ripples, pouring into the corroded gutters to the discolored downspouts that stood at the four corners of the broken house. Then a teary torrent gushed from the maws of those twisted spouts, spreading over the ready reach of a surrounding land. Gathering puddles formed where rigid rock or cloistered clay would not allow easy entry. "Ragged rain was as old as the raggedy human kind, an ever more ancient and ageless storm. Wanting waters had fallen within uncounted past years and in uncountable passing places, never seeming to stop. Most people whom it fell upon appeared always to move with upturned faces, eyes fixed on higher and better ground..."