In this memoir, Santana shares for the first time her early experiences with racial intolerance, as a girl growing up in San Francisco in the 1960s, daughter of a white mother and a black blues guitarist father; her romantic involvement with musician Sly Stone and the suffering she endured in that relationship; and her adventures in the 1960s. Yet it is her spiritual awakening that is the core of this story. The civil rights movement was the foundation of her growth, the Woodstock era the backdrop of her thirty-year bond with Carlos. The couple was drawn together by a search for truth and spirituality, but became involved a manipulative cult. They eventually disengaged themselves from the guru and reclaimed control of their lives.