“God, why did you give me the wrong father?” That’s the question Lynn asks about the purveyor of the finest Chicago-style hot dogs that the city has ever known. Routinely sheathed with absurdly darkened and unnaturally tough, sun-burnt skin from long hours spent outside, Sam is impossible to understand. While he’s sometimes charming, he drinks, argues, and can be downright mean. Even so, as Lynn looks back at her childhood, she yearns to inhale the stark aroma of scorched red hots and spicy tamales her father habitually dressed and adored, selling them by the hundreds every night. And there’s nothing she wouldn’t pay to truly understand any one of her father’s exasperating secrets. But money won’t help Lynn unravel the mysteries surrounding Sam—she can only do that by surrendering her painful relationship with her father to God. Through that simple act, she’s finally able to understand, love, and forgive her father. Filled with gut-wrenching prose, glorious scents, and sounds and sights unique to Chicago, the story of Sam is the ultimate tale of faith, family, and forgiveness.