Dramatizing the misery of the dust bowl migrants hoping to find work in California agriculture, this text starts with the scandals of the Spanish land grant purchases, and goes on to examine the experience of ethnic groups that have provided labour for California's agricultural industry.

A passionate survey and documentation of the irresponsible exploitation of migrant labor by the owners and managers of large farms and ranches in California, woven with a history of the rise of agribusiness in the west and the efforts of workers to organize unions.