Los Angeles, 1948. Lily Bantacorte's life at home is unbearable. Her little brothers are demanding and her lecherous stepfather won't leave her alone. So Lily turns to her estranged aunt in Chavez Ravine for a place to stay, but her timing couldn’t be worse. Lily isn’t the only new arrival in Chavez Ravine. La Llorona, the legendary ghost of Mexican folklore, has taken up residence too. Aunt Lencha is a famous healer, and maybe even a witch, and the community is counting on her to save them from the ghostly weeping woman. As encounters with La Llorona escalate, Lily must confront her fears and beliefs if she’s going to survive.

Better listen to your mother. Kiki Fonseca finally has a shot at her lead singer for a Latin band at the Hollywood Palladium. It’s the day before Christmas Eve, 1949, in the old neighborhoods of Chavez Ravine high in the hills above Los Angeles. The young mother needs to make a dress and tamales too, but her eight-year-old son, Rudy, equal parts angel and hellion, has other ideas. When Rudy pushes Kiki to the brink, she falls back on an age-old scare behave, or the Cucuy will get you! Kiki doesn’t really believe in the boogeyman until a gust of wind whips up the dirt roads of La Loma and a hooded nightmare appears.