This is a story of food. Mexican food. It is also the tale of two sisters, their family restaurant, and their circle of friends. Set against the tapestry of San Francisco's traditionally Latino Mission district, the novel weaves through the lives of a set of unlikely friends.Alex has been running the family restaurant since her father's fatal freak accident while still in her teens. Where Alex thrives in the restaurant's front rooms, her sister, Leah, prefers to work in the kitchen. Far away from the loud and unpredictable public.Tessa can't wait to go to Stanford and disassociate herself from the people of the Mish and their notions, old-fashioned to insane. And then there's Dulce, a precocious boy trapped in a woman's body. She even buys most of her clothes at the boys' department of K-mart. She claims they have the most durable socks.Although subject to cultural expectations and limitations, misogyny, and racism - not to mention the fashion trends of puffy hair, fuchsia makeup, and parachute pants - Chickens encompasses all of the comical mishaps and unsettled mayhem of life in the early 80's as each character defines her own unique identity.