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Plot Summary
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Plot Summary
In the sugarcane country surrounding the village of La Matosa, five boys armed with slingshots discover a bloated, decomposing corpse floating in an irrigation canal. The dead woman is known only as the Witch, a reclusive figure who lived in a crumbling house among the cane fields. Through a succession of narrators, each driven by private obsessions, the novel reconstructs the Witch's life, the circumstances of her murder, and the interlocking miseries of the people connected to her death.
The second chapter traces the Witch's history through village gossip and collective memory. Two women bore the title: the Old Witch, who lived with Don Manolo Conde, a wealthy landowner, in his unfinished mansion; and her daughter, referred to first as the Girl and eventually as the Witch. After Don Manolo died of what a doctor called a heart attack, townspeople accused the Old Witch of poisoning him. His two legitimate sons arrived to claim the estate but died that same day, crushed by metal beams during the funeral procession, a disaster the villagers attributed to the Old Witch's curse. She sealed herself inside the house, bricking up windows and the front door, and received townswomen on Fridays for cures and potions. Under the kitchen table, the women discovered a sickly, silent girl.
The Girl survived, taught herself to read, managed the household finances, and became a moneylender. After a devastating 1978 hurricane killed much of the population, the Girl appeared on the streets of Villa, a nearby town, dressed entirely in black and veiled, signaling her mother's presumed death. She was thereafter known simply as the Witch. As La Matosa repopulated with outsiders drawn by highway construction and oil development, the Witch began paying young men for sexual encounters. Men broke in seeking rumored treasure. Her body is found in the canal with her throat slit. Police Captain Rigorito investigates, but no one can claim the body because no one knows the Witch's real name.
The third chapter belongs to Yesenia, eldest granddaughter of Doña Tina, a domineering matriarch. On a Friday morning, Yesenia encounters her cousin Luismi stumbling barefoot along the river, visibly intoxicated. Through her bitter recollections, the family history emerges. Doña Tina's favorite child, her son Maurilio, killed a man, served nine years in prison, and fell ill after his release, likely from AIDS. Doña Tina sold the family's roadside food stand to pay for his treatment, driving away her daughters Negra and Balbi, who left for the north. Before dying, Maurilio was said to have fathered a son whom his partner Chabela abandoned as an infant. Doña Tina took in the boy, Luismi, despite the family's conviction that Maurilio was not the real father.
Doña Tina doted on Luismi while beating her granddaughters with a wet rope. Yesenia bore the household's burden as Luismi descended into delinquency, drug use, and nights at the Witch's house. One night Yesenia followed him there and saw what went on, but when she told Doña Tina, the grandmother refused to believe her and cut off Yesenia's hair with poultry shears. On the Friday of the murder, Yesenia spots the van belonging to Munra, Chabela's husband and Luismi's stepfather, parked near the Witch's house. She watches two young men emerge carrying a limp figure dressed in black and identifies one as Luismi. On Monday, hearing that the body has been found, she goes to the police and provides Luismi's full name and address. That evening, Doña Tina learns of the arrest from neighborhood gossips and has a fatal seizure. Yesenia holds her dying grandmother and begs forgiveness, interpreting Doña Tina's final gaze as a curse of condemnation.
Munra narrates the fourth chapter, insisting to investigators that he never left the van. He walks with a crutch after a highway accident that left one leg badly bent. In the days before the murder, his wife Chabela has gone missing, possibly with Cuco Barrabás, a local narco. Luismi's girlfriend Norma recently suffered heavy bleeding and fever; at the hospital, staff discovered she was only 13, and a social worker threatened Luismi with arrest. On the day of the murder, Luismi texted Munra for a ride. Munra found him at the park with Brando, a 19-year-old from Luismi's park gang, and Willy, an older pirated-video dealer who passed out before they left. Brando paid for gas, and they drove to La Matosa. Brando and Luismi went inside the Witch's house while Munra waited. They emerged carrying a body, loaded it into the van, and directed Munra toward the canal. En route, the Witch gasped and whimpered; the boys kicked her. At the canal, they dragged her out. Munra did not look.
Norma narrates from a hospital bed, restrained after an emergency procedure, refusing to speak to protect Luismi. In Ciudad del Valle, a cold highland city, she grew up in poverty. Her stepfather Pepe began sexually abusing her when she was 12. When she discovered she was pregnant, she ran away, intending to drown herself in the sea. A bus carried her as far as the outskirts of Villa, where Luismi found her crying on a park bench, fed her, and brought her to his shack. Luismi's mother Chabela noticed Norma's pregnancy and arranged an abortion through the Witch, who reluctantly prepared an herbal potion after Chabela falsely claimed Luismi had requested the help. The Witch urged Norma to stay and take the potion under supervision, but Chabela pulled her away. That night, alone, Norma drank the brew, crawled outside, and expelled what was inside her. She hemorrhaged until Luismi rushed her to the hospital. Tied to the bed, surrounded by nursing mothers, she breaks down crying for her own mother.
Brando narrates from a jail cell where Rigorito's men have beaten him. He grew up lonely with a devoutly religious mother. A disturbing pornographic clip warped his sexuality; he could never achieve orgasm with women. His defining secret is an intense, unacknowledged desire for Luismi. One night while Luismi lay passed out, Brando sexually assaulted him and experienced his first orgasm with another person. He fled in horror, but Luismi never mentioned the incident. When Luismi announced he had married Norma, Brando seethed with jealousy and began pressuring Luismi to rob the Witch's house, privately planning murder. After Norma's hospitalization, Luismi blamed the Witch and agreed. At the house, Brando struck the Witch on the skull with Munra's crutch. They searched but found only a banknote and loose change; a locked upstairs room refused to yield. At the canal, Brando placed a knife in Luismi's hand, wrapped his own hands around Luismi's fist, and drove the blade into the Witch's throat. That night, Brando returned alone to search the house again but fled when a huge black cat appeared and the lights went out, convinced the devil had come for him. The next day, police seized him as he attempted to lure a young boy to a secluded area. Under torture, he confessed and directed Rigorito to the locked upstairs room. The chapter ends as Munra and a badly beaten Luismi are shoved into Brando's cell. Brando weeps with possessive relief at finally having Luismi within reach.
The final chapters shift to a collective village voice and then to an elderly gravedigger called the Grandfather. Townspeople claim the Witch transformed into a creature at the moment of death. Rigorito's men reportedly broke open the sealed upstairs room and found the mummified corpse of the Old Witch on the bed, crumbling to bone and hair. The region's violence escalates: decapitations, shootouts, unpunished crimes. The women of La Matosa gather on their porches at dusk, warning their children never to enter the Witch's house. There is no treasure, they affirm, only pain. At the cemetery, the Grandfather receives the Witch's body among other anonymous dead. As the first rain of the season falls, he speaks to the dead, telling them not to fear the darkness, and points them toward a distant light.
The second chapter traces the Witch's history through village gossip and collective memory. Two women bore the title: the Old Witch, who lived with Don Manolo Conde, a wealthy landowner, in his unfinished mansion; and her daughter, referred to first as the Girl and eventually as the Witch. After Don Manolo died of what a doctor called a heart attack, townspeople accused the Old Witch of poisoning him. His two legitimate sons arrived to claim the estate but died that same day, crushed by metal beams during the funeral procession, a disaster the villagers attributed to the Old Witch's curse. She sealed herself inside the house, bricking up windows and the front door, and received townswomen on Fridays for cures and potions. Under the kitchen table, the women discovered a sickly, silent girl.
The Girl survived, taught herself to read, managed the household finances, and became a moneylender. After a devastating 1978 hurricane killed much of the population, the Girl appeared on the streets of Villa, a nearby town, dressed entirely in black and veiled, signaling her mother's presumed death. She was thereafter known simply as the Witch. As La Matosa repopulated with outsiders drawn by highway construction and oil development, the Witch began paying young men for sexual encounters. Men broke in seeking rumored treasure. Her body is found in the canal with her throat slit. Police Captain Rigorito investigates, but no one can claim the body because no one knows the Witch's real name.
The third chapter belongs to Yesenia, eldest granddaughter of Doña Tina, a domineering matriarch. On a Friday morning, Yesenia encounters her cousin Luismi stumbling barefoot along the river, visibly intoxicated. Through her bitter recollections, the family history emerges. Doña Tina's favorite child, her son Maurilio, killed a man, served nine years in prison, and fell ill after his release, likely from AIDS. Doña Tina sold the family's roadside food stand to pay for his treatment, driving away her daughters Negra and Balbi, who left for the north. Before dying, Maurilio was said to have fathered a son whom his partner Chabela abandoned as an infant. Doña Tina took in the boy, Luismi, despite the family's conviction that Maurilio was not the real father.
Doña Tina doted on Luismi while beating her granddaughters with a wet rope. Yesenia bore the household's burden as Luismi descended into delinquency, drug use, and nights at the Witch's house. One night Yesenia followed him there and saw what went on, but when she told Doña Tina, the grandmother refused to believe her and cut off Yesenia's hair with poultry shears. On the Friday of the murder, Yesenia spots the van belonging to Munra, Chabela's husband and Luismi's stepfather, parked near the Witch's house. She watches two young men emerge carrying a limp figure dressed in black and identifies one as Luismi. On Monday, hearing that the body has been found, she goes to the police and provides Luismi's full name and address. That evening, Doña Tina learns of the arrest from neighborhood gossips and has a fatal seizure. Yesenia holds her dying grandmother and begs forgiveness, interpreting Doña Tina's final gaze as a curse of condemnation.
Munra narrates the fourth chapter, insisting to investigators that he never left the van. He walks with a crutch after a highway accident that left one leg badly bent. In the days before the murder, his wife Chabela has gone missing, possibly with Cuco Barrabás, a local narco. Luismi's girlfriend Norma recently suffered heavy bleeding and fever; at the hospital, staff discovered she was only 13, and a social worker threatened Luismi with arrest. On the day of the murder, Luismi texted Munra for a ride. Munra found him at the park with Brando, a 19-year-old from Luismi's park gang, and Willy, an older pirated-video dealer who passed out before they left. Brando paid for gas, and they drove to La Matosa. Brando and Luismi went inside the Witch's house while Munra waited. They emerged carrying a body, loaded it into the van, and directed Munra toward the canal. En route, the Witch gasped and whimpered; the boys kicked her. At the canal, they dragged her out. Munra did not look.
Norma narrates from a hospital bed, restrained after an emergency procedure, refusing to speak to protect Luismi. In Ciudad del Valle, a cold highland city, she grew up in poverty. Her stepfather Pepe began sexually abusing her when she was 12. When she discovered she was pregnant, she ran away, intending to drown herself in the sea. A bus carried her as far as the outskirts of Villa, where Luismi found her crying on a park bench, fed her, and brought her to his shack. Luismi's mother Chabela noticed Norma's pregnancy and arranged an abortion through the Witch, who reluctantly prepared an herbal potion after Chabela falsely claimed Luismi had requested the help. The Witch urged Norma to stay and take the potion under supervision, but Chabela pulled her away. That night, alone, Norma drank the brew, crawled outside, and expelled what was inside her. She hemorrhaged until Luismi rushed her to the hospital. Tied to the bed, surrounded by nursing mothers, she breaks down crying for her own mother.
Brando narrates from a jail cell where Rigorito's men have beaten him. He grew up lonely with a devoutly religious mother. A disturbing pornographic clip warped his sexuality; he could never achieve orgasm with women. His defining secret is an intense, unacknowledged desire for Luismi. One night while Luismi lay passed out, Brando sexually assaulted him and experienced his first orgasm with another person. He fled in horror, but Luismi never mentioned the incident. When Luismi announced he had married Norma, Brando seethed with jealousy and began pressuring Luismi to rob the Witch's house, privately planning murder. After Norma's hospitalization, Luismi blamed the Witch and agreed. At the house, Brando struck the Witch on the skull with Munra's crutch. They searched but found only a banknote and loose change; a locked upstairs room refused to yield. At the canal, Brando placed a knife in Luismi's hand, wrapped his own hands around Luismi's fist, and drove the blade into the Witch's throat. That night, Brando returned alone to search the house again but fled when a huge black cat appeared and the lights went out, convinced the devil had come for him. The next day, police seized him as he attempted to lure a young boy to a secluded area. Under torture, he confessed and directed Rigorito to the locked upstairs room. The chapter ends as Munra and a badly beaten Luismi are shoved into Brando's cell. Brando weeps with possessive relief at finally having Luismi within reach.
The final chapters shift to a collective village voice and then to an elderly gravedigger called the Grandfather. Townspeople claim the Witch transformed into a creature at the moment of death. Rigorito's men reportedly broke open the sealed upstairs room and found the mummified corpse of the Old Witch on the bed, crumbling to bone and hair. The region's violence escalates: decapitations, shootouts, unpunished crimes. The women of La Matosa gather on their porches at dusk, warning their children never to enter the Witch's house. There is no treasure, they affirm, only pain. At the cemetery, the Grandfather receives the Witch's body among other anonymous dead. As the first rain of the season falls, he speaks to the dead, telling them not to fear the darkness, and points them toward a distant light.
