The following version of this book was used to create the guide: Cruz, Angie. How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water. Flatiron Books, 2022.

Angie Cruz's novel How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water is written from the main character Cara Romero's first person point of view. The novel is structured around Cara's 12 consecutive meetings with her career counselor, Lissette. The narrative therefore employs the direct address as well as both the past and present tenses. Because the sum of Cara's narration appears in the form of a monologue, the narrative takes structural and formal liberties. The following summary relies upon the present tense and a more linear mode of explanation.

Two years after Cara Romero loses her job at the lamp factory, she enrolls in the Senior Workforce Program. Through the program, Cara must attend 12 consecutive sessions with a job counselor. Her counselor, Lissette, will advise Cara on career opportunities and interview skills.

Cara first hears about the Senior Workforce Program through La Escuelita, a dual language school in New York. She and her friend and neighbor, Lulú, have started taking English language courses at the school in order to continue receiving unemployment checks from the government. Her professor at the school then recommends that Cara pursue career guidance through the Senior Workforce, at which point she begins meeting with Lissette.

Cara tells Lissette that she is 55 and has been in the States for roughly 27 years. She left the Dominican Republic because she believed her ex-husband, Ricardo, wanted to kill her. For two years following the birth of her son, Fernando, Ricardo did not touch Cara. Feeling lonely and forgotten, Cara had an affair with a man named Cristián. When Ricardo discovered the truth, he attacked Cristián and chopped off his leg with a machete. Cara was convinced that Ricardo would come for her next, and fled with Fernando.

Not long after Cara moved to New York City, she helped her sister, Ángela, and brother, Rafa, come to the States as well. For years, Cara cared for her siblings. She worked tirelessly so that they could pursue their own marriages, educations, and careers.

Cara often misses the closeness she once had with her sister. She tells Lissette that in spite of all she has done for Ángela, Ángela does not seem to appreciate her. Despite these relational complexities, Cara maintains a close relationship with her brother-in-law, Hernán, and her niece and nephew. These relationships have also helped Cara survive in the wake of her son's prolonged absence.

Ten years prior to the narrative present, Fernando left home for good. Fernando was responding to Cara's ongoing emotional and physical abuse. Cara relays stories of her aggression towards Fernando to Lissette, always insisting that she was only trying to protect her son. Although Fernando refuses to see Cara and even files a restraining order against her, Cara does not give up trying to find and reconnect with him.

Cara spends the majority of her time helping her neighbors and friends. She lives in an apartment building in Washington Heights. Ever since the building was taken over by new management, Cara has worried that she will lose her apartment. She is especially fearful because she does not have a job, and also because the building is the basis of her community.

Over the course of Cara's 12 consecutive sessions with Lissette, she becomes more and more honest and open. She tells Lissette about her complicated familial dynamics as a child, and reflects upon all of the ways she failed Fernando. Her conversations with Lissette ultimately grant Cara the time and the space to sort through her previously unresolved emotional and psychological troubles.

By the end of the program, Cara has not only made amends with her sister, but begun to alter her outlook on life, on family, and on the future.