The book captures interviews on how the laws designed to protect farm workers, such as heat laws, rest break laws and sexual harassment laws are simply not being enforced in the fields. For that reason, farm workers look to the UFW to help them organize without the fear of getting fired. When farm workers are organized, they know they have the power to ensure that the laws on the books are the laws in the fields.

Farmworker narratives portray a balance of struggle and pride, suffering and accomplishment and each includes a black and white portrait of the individual. A statewide project, California's Broken Promises humanizes the people who work daily to put food on America's tables.