Summary
When Blanca is about three years old, the family decides
to spend a summer together in Tres Marias. The moment they arrive,
Blanca meets Pedro Tercero Garcia, and they fall in love. Clara
is incredibly happy in Tres Marias. For the first and only time
in her life she becomes involved in earthly pursuits, devoting herself
to teaching the workers and their families basic education, nutrition,
and health care. She also tries to teach the women about gender
inequality, but they realize that they cannot follow her advice.
Esteban becomes enraged when he discovers her efforts with the women,
but she simply ignores him and diffuses his anger.
At the end of the summer, Clara is so content in Tres
Marias that they stay. Ferula is the only member of the family who
is unhappy there. She begins to have nervous fits, but she refuses
to leave because she does not want to be separated from Clara, the
only person she ever truly loves in her life.
In the fall, an ant plague strikes Tres Marias. Esteban
tries everything to rid the property of the ants, including bringing
in Mr. Brown, a midget gringo "agricultural technician specializing
in insecticides." After hearing that Mr. Brown's method will take months
to succeed, too long a time to save Tres Marias, in desperation
they go to Pedro Garcia, who successfully rids Tres Marias of the
ants. Pedro Garcia shows them the way out—as he explains to Mr.
Brown, all that was needed was to "[T]ell them to go, that they're
a nuisance her. They understand."
At Tres Marias, Clara becomes pregnant again, and they
must return to the city so that she can have access to appropriate
medical attention. Clara has a difficult pregnancy during which
she stops speaking. Esteban is not comfortable in the house in the
city filled with women, but he feels that they need his male presence.
Toward the end of her term, Clara begins speaking again to announce
that she will have twins named Jaime and Nicolas. Esteban is furious that
one of them will not be named after him, and in a rage he goes off
to the best brothel in the city, the Christopher Columbus. There he
re-encounters Transito Soto. Transito is happily working as an independent
prostitute at the Christopher Columbus, with a reputation as the
best woman they have. However, Transito still wants more independence.
She and Esteban share not only great sexual appetites but also great
ambition, and she tells him of her dream to open up a cooperative
of "whores and fags".
A few days later, Severo and Nivea del Valle die in a
car accident, in which Nivea's head is severed from her body. Everyone
in the family tries to shelter Clara from the news because of her
pregnancy. Clara finds out through her dreams and premonitions.
Since rescuers were unable to locate Nivea's head, she is buried
without it, another fact that everyone tries to hide from Clara.
Clara also however knew about the severed head and is determined
to find it. Ferula agrees to help her, and following Clara's instincts,
they drive out to the location of the accident and recover the head,
where hundreds of rescuers missed it. On the way home, Clara goes
into labor and Ferula delivers the twin boys as soon as they arrive
home. The two women do not tell anyone about having found Nivea's
head, and they hide it in a hatbox. When They tell Esteban about
it, he moves it to the basement.
Nana moves in with Clara and Esteban, and she and Ferula
take care of the family, while Clara becomes intensely involved
with the three Mora sisters and their eclectic group of spiritualist
friends. She remains oblivious to the intense rivalry over her affection
between Nana and Ferula, and much more importantly between Ferula
and Esteban.
