When the "coyote" took a group across the border to the U.S. from Mexico he didn't know that one of the group was not a Mexican wanting to work in the U.S. That person was Cuban detective Mercado, who has come to Colorado to find the truth about her father's death. Her father had been living in exile and was killed in a hit-and-run accident. No investigation of the accident was ever made by Sheriff Briggs, since after all, the dead man was "only an illegal immigrant."

Mercado is obsessed with finding who killed her father. She takes a job as a maid, thereby gaining access to the homes of the rich and famous living in Fairview. Through the use of flashbacks we are able to trace the events leading to her father's defection. Only after she discovers the guilty party and enacts her revenge does she learn, upon her return to Cuba, the true reason for her father's defection.

Fifty Grand is a well written, action packed story of revenge. The cast is a strong one: Mercado is a deeply emotional protagonist, and Sheriff Briggs is a villain you cannot help but hate. The author makes a strong contrast between Cuban mentality and geography and that of the U.S. The descriptions of the poverty and crime in Cuba are very vivid.