In the second half of the nineteenth century, a wealthy Havana family undergoes a drastic lifestyle change when they move to a small provincial town at the other end of Cuba following the purchase of a sugar mill. The move becomes permanent but, over the years, the three Serrano children seek to get away: the oldest daughter, Graciela, goes to New York to free herself from the cultural bounds of Cuban society; the rebellious middle child, Carmela, elopes with a man she does not love and settles in a farm; the youngest, Alberto, goes back to Havana and becomes active in the incipient attempts to free Cuba from Spain's stifling rule. At the end, however, the three return home and meet their destinies. Throughout it all, the children's mother, Cecilia, holds the family together and manages to keep the sugar mill operating and providing tenuous support for their adventures. "When Cubans Went to War" is an absorbing family saga that unfolds during a critical decade in Cuba's history, told against the backdrop of the rise and decline of the sugar industry, the United States civil war, the efforts to end slavery, rebellion against Spain's tyrannical regime, and social inequality among Cubans and between them and the Spanish carpetbaggers that rule the island.