A twelve-year old Latina girl named Esperanza, which means hope, moved to Mango street with her parents and siblings. Esperanza then finds two new friends, Rachel and Lucy, who are as poor as she is. She makes another friend Marin, who knows "women things" and never gets out the house because she's babysitting her cousins. She soon discovers the fear that outsiders have of her neigborhood, making the "Brown" neighborhood. Lucy, Rachel, and Esperanza have found old heels which makes the feel beautiful and powerful but then get sexually harassed by the men in the neighborhood. In school the Superior Sister bully Esperanza and assume she lives in the worst house of the neighborhood. Eseranza then meets Sally, a girl who is the same age as her but is a horrible friend. When Esperanza found Sally with other boys she wanted to save her but as she does Sally and the boys tell her to leave. Sally and Esperanza went to the carnival only making Sally leave with a boy and leaving Esperanza a victim of rape. She had this crush on a boy who awakens her sexuality, named Sire, and Esperanza knows he's staring at her but couldn't dare to look at him because she likes him. Elenita tells Esperanza about her fortune and tells her that she'll have a "heart of a home". Aunt Lala, Esperanza's aunt, gave her a job at a photo store where an older man lewd her a kiss. She compares herself to a tree in front of her house saying that she doesn't belong in Mango Street, while Mamacita won't leave her house because she won't speak or learn the English language. Rafaela is forced to stay on the third floor because every time her husband leaves the house he doesn't want her to leave him and she has Esperanza to get her coconut and peach juice. Aunt Lupe was Esperanza's aunt who died the day after Rachel, Lucy, and Esperanza made fun of her behind her back. The three sisters are Rachel and Lucy's aunts who told Esperanza that she belongs in Mango street and that she has to come back.