Papi tells a story in the voice of an eight year old girl waiting in Santo Domingo for her father to return from New York to lavish her with gifts and the glory of his fame. Things don't go according to plan.

Jazzy, intense, and witty, "Papi" is told in the voice of a little girl waiting in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, for her father to return from New York City to shower her with gifts and fame. When he arrives, (less like a prince charming and more like Jason from the "Friday the 13th" movies), dangerous, and completely unreliable, the child/narrator tries to understand her own cravings for fame, money, and security, and to reconcile her blind admiration for a father too "monstrous" for Santo Domingo, but too weak for his role as an international drug-dealer. Drawing on her own past in the D.R. and her visits with her own absentee father in New York, Rita Indiana mixes satire with fantasy, horror, science fiction, and devastating memories. One reviewer called this a novel "so fast-paced that it must be swallowed whole; to set it aside is as dangerous as jumping from a speeding motorcycle."