title: Pure Cane
author: Abis, David
description: Coming of age on a sugarcane plantation during the 1986 Philippine revolution, young Lisa Salonga, pampered niece of the wealthy Delgado family, lives only for hacienda socials amid the sweet scent of the cane harvest, that is until her idyllic childhood ends when she falls hard for a mere cane worker from the other side of the tracks who turns her carefree world upside down. Even though her relationship with Johnny appears doomed from the start by a class-conscious society, Lisa remains determined to unravel his mysterious past in America and the unspoken taboo surrounding his family ties to the plantation. Their fledgling romance only grows as Lisa and Johnny play pivotal roles in the church-led people’s revolution overthrowing the corrupt Marcos regime, but soon, amid a growing communist insurgency, the lovers are caught in the crossfire and Lisa begins to wonder which side her Johnny is really on. It’s only when a deadly typhoon threatens to destroy them all that she discovers just who her Johnny really is and what he represents for the future, both the plantation’s and hers.