This is a TV comedy pilot revolving around a Hispanic-American 36-year-old widow, and mother of two, Lily Esteban, who takes on a boarder into her ramshackle Victorian to survive in a part of town now becoming gentrified.

Alchemist of Boyle Heights is a TV comedy pilot revolving around a Hispanic-American 36-year-old widow, and mother of two, Lily Esteban, who takes on a boarder into her ramshackle Victorian to survive in a part of town now becoming gentrified. Life in Alchemist of Boyle Heights is also emblematic of a struggle between class and culture in Los Angeles. Lily has declared her ambition to do better and in so doing, she must buck the established order. The traditional role of women in a Hispanic household which has been to stay home and take care of the children, while men worked. Lily, however, is her own woman, one not ruled by tradition, or society's constraints, but by common sense and hard work as she builds a life for herself and her family under difficult circumstances. So, Lily creates something from nothing -- gold from thin air -- an alchemist.—Migdia Chinea and Frank Varela