Farrington asks how dominicanidad, Dominican identity, took its present shape, and answers by way of the Dominican Republic's long entanglement with Haiti.

The account starts with colonial developments and conflicts, and the factors that produced two ethnically distinct states on one island. It moves next to the Trujillo regime's policy toward Haiti, then to the way dominicanidad is presented in the media and the ways Dominicans identify themselves individually and as a group.

Historical factors are tied to present-day outcomes and to current political developments, and the conclusion identifies conflict in the past as a major ingredient of Dominican ethnic identity today.