When Maria returns to Nicaragua for her beloved grandfather's funeral, she brings with her a mysterious package from her grandmother's past. She also carries the burden of her tense relationship with her mother, Ninexin, once a storied revolutionary, now a dedicated official in the Sandinista government. Between Maria and Ninexin lies a chasm created by the death of Maria's father, which left Maria to be raised by her grandmother Isabela while Ninexin worked to build the new Nicaragua. As Ninexin tries to reach her daughter and Maria wrestles with her turbulent relationship with an older man, Isabela becomes lost in the memories of boarding school in 1950's New Orleans, where she loved and lost almost sixty years ago. When the three women come together to bid farewell to the man who had anchored their family, they are forced to confront their complicated relationships - with one another and with their country - and to reveal the secrets that each of them has tried so hard to conceal.

Lushly evocative of Nicaragua, with its tumultuous history and its vibrant present, Eleni N. Gage 's The Ladies of Managua brings you into the lives of three strong and magnetic women as they face their past choices and discover how love can shape their futures.