"Who Would Have Thought It?" details the struggles of a Mexican-American girl born in Indian captivity, Lola, in an American society obsessed with class, religion, race and gender. The first part of the book follows the central family in the years leading up to the start of the American Civil War and the attack on Fort Sumter (1857–1861), and flashbacks are meant to take the readers back further than that time line, such as the kidnapping of Lola's mother in 1846. The second part chronicles the events that took place during the Civil War (1861–1864). Each chapter focuses on a particular character and is told from an omniscient point of view. Who Would Have Thought It? is a semi-autobiographical novel written by María Ruiz de Burton and it reflects the author's ambiguous position between the small in number Californio elite and the Anglo-American populace, which form the majority of the United States population.

María Amparo Ruiz de Burton (1832-1895) was the first female Mexican-American author to write in English. Her best known work is "Who Would Have Thought It?" a novel on Civil War. Ruiz de Burton's work is considered to be a precursor to Chicano literature. Her life took her from coast to coast in the United States, which provided her with opportunity for first-hand observation of the U.S., its westward expansion, the American Civil War, and its aftermath.