Lupe Martinez is sipping an espresso she bought from a cart in front of the U.S. Mint, two and three-quarter miles from Ground Zero, when the cloudy day gets unusually bright. A terrible wind gusts through the streets, and the ground begins to shake. Assuming that San Francisco is suffering its worst earthquake ever, Lupe takes cover under a bus shelter as pieces of glass and debris start to fall. But when a huge fireball rises in the eastern sky, followed by a massive cloud of steam, Lupe knows that something far worse has happened. The radio on the espresso cart soon begins to tell the terrible story.
Lupe first tries to call each of her parents on her cell phone, but gets no answer from either of them. Her little brother's school answers her call, and the attendance office tells her that someone should come to pick up Benny, forgetting in all the chaos that his class is out on a field trip. Lupe remembers that the disaster plan her family worked out some time ago calls for her mom to go get Benny, so she decides to stay where she is and help whomever she can. She spends a few hours in the Mission District helping people who have been injured, and eventually makes her way to the Mission Dolores Basilica, which has been converted into a first aid station and emergency shelter.
After spending the rest of the day unsuccessfully searching for Benny, Joe makes his way to Mission Dolores that night to find Lupe alive and unhurt. However, about three weeks after the attack, Lupe begins to suffer from fever and chills, and her hair falls out. Medical services are reorganized by then, so Lupe receives the treatment she needs to relieve the effects of radiation and support her immune system. Her father and she both survive the attack, but they will carry both physical reminders and psychological scars from the catastrophe for the rest of their lives.