In his first "unfunny" novel, as T.C. Boyle called The Tortilla Curtain, two worlds are on a collision course. On one side is the Mossbacher family, well-off wannabe liberals living in a gated community near Los Angeles. On the other side are Cándido and América Rincón, undocumented immigrants without papers in the land of plenty, living in a makeshift shelter and yet wanting only one thing: a small piece of the wealth that surrounds them.