Eddie relates the story of how his cousin Jesús was murdered in a nightclub bathroom by a young man wearing yellow shoes. It would appear that Jesús said something about the shoes and the young man took offense. He responded angrily, plunging his knife blade into Jesús's heart, killing him instantly. Eddie doesn't know for certain precisely what happened that night as he's simply reporting what was told to him by Angel.

In any case, Eddie comes under a lot of pressure from Angel as well as his Aunt Dolores to avenge Jesús's death. And so he spends a lot of time looking for the mysterious man with the yellow shoes. But try as he might, he just can't find him. Although he does approach a startled youth in the college parking-lot one day who answers to the description of the alleged murderer. Eddie gets right up into the young man's face, threatening him and stepping on his yellow shoes. But Eddie walks off when the campus police approach before he can do something he might regret.

Eventually, Eddie begins to suspect that maybe the man with the yellow shoes doesn't really exist; that maybe Angel was responsible for Jesús's death and has sent him off on a wild goose-chase to deflect attention from his own guilt.