The narrator introduces fukú americanus, a Caribbean curse he believes has haunted the Cabral-de León family for generations.

Oscar de León simultaneously dates two girls at age seven — his last romantic success for many years to come.

Oscar falls for Ana Obregón in SAT prep class, but Ana reunites with her abusive ex-boyfriend Manny and crushes Oscar's hopes.

Oscar steals his uncle Rudolfo's gun and spends an entire night waiting outside Manny's apartment building.

La Inca tracks down young Belicia and finds her locked in a chicken coop with severe, life-threatening burns on her back.

La Fea's henchmen drive Belicia to the canefields and beat her nearly to death, causing her to miscarry.

Yunior agrees to room with Oscar at Rutgers and keep watch over him while Lola studies abroad in Spain.

Oscar refuses to continue Yunior's jogging regimen and shoves him away, creating a lasting rift between the two.

Yunior mocks Oscar's Doctor Who costume on Halloween, and a friend's mishearing permanently coins the nickname 'Oscar Wao.'

Oscar walks in on Jenni Muñóz having sex with another student and trashes her room in a blind rage.

Oscar drinks heavily, walks to the train bridge, and jumps seventy-seven feet, surviving with two broken legs.

Oscar graduates from Rutgers and returns to Paterson, working as a substitute teacher at his old high school.

Oscar meets Ybón Pimentel, a semi-retired sex worker, during a family vacation to the Dominican Republic.

The capitán's two officers drive Oscar to the canefields and beat him within an inch of his life.

Oscar is shot dead in the canefields after the capitán's men allow him a final moment to speak.

The novel follows Oscar de León, an overweight, sci-fi-obsessed Dominican American whose desperate longing for love defines and ultimately destroys him. From his brief romantic success at age seven to his crushing failures with Ana and Jenni, Oscar's life is a string of heartbreaks that push him toward self-destruction. His college roommate Yunior witnesses Oscar's darkest moment — a jump off a 77-foot bridge — and survives to narrate his story. Woven through Oscar's teenage years are the Dominican chapters of his family's curse: his grandmother Belicia's near-fatal beating in the canefields. After graduating, Oscar falls for a woman entangled with a violent police captain, which sets off a chain of beatings that he refuses to flee. Oscar returns to the Dominican Republic one final time, and the curse that has haunted his family for generations claims his life.

Oscar Wao's life and death — the central story

Belicia guides Lola's hand over a cancerous lump in her breast and soon undergoes a mastectomy and chemotherapy.

Lola runs away with a nineteen-year-old carny named Aldo and loses her virginity at his Wildwood home.

Oscar betrays Lola's hiding place when she calls home, allowing Belicia to drag her daughter back.

As punishment for running away, Belicia sends Lola to live with La Inca in Santo Domingo.

Lola thrives in Santo Domingo, becoming the school's top track runner and dating the kind Max Sánchez.

Sensing Lola's growing restlessness, La Inca sits her down and tells her Belicia's full story for the first time.

Belicia is discovered having sex with classmate Jack Pujols in a school supply closet and loses her scholarship.

Belicia attacks the Gangster with her fists at a dance club, then returns days later to ask him to dance.

Belicia discovers that the Gangster is married to Trujillo's own sister, known as La Fea.

Max dies in a bicycle accident at work, and Lola gives her $2,000 to his family before returning to America.

Abelard refuses to bring his beautiful daughter Jacquelyn to a presidential event, defying Trujillo's explicit request.

Abelard is arrested and charged with slander and gross calumny against the person of the president.

Socorro visits a broken Abelard in prison and shortly afterward discovers she is pregnant with Belicia.

Ybón visits Oscar in the hospital sporting two black eyes and announces she is marrying the capitán.

Lola moves to Miami, marries Ruben, and has a daughter; Yunior eventually settles down with a wife in New Jersey.

This pool follows the significant events surrounding Oscar's family members rather than Oscar himself, tracing Lola's adolescent rebellion and Belicia's doomed love affair with the Gangster. Lola's arc moves from discovering her mother's cancer to running away with a carny, being caught, and being sent to Santo Domingo — where she thrives briefly before tragedy pulls her home. Belicia's story reveals the passion and naivety that led her into the arms of a man connected to the Trujillo regime, ultimately resulting in her near-death and exile. Running parallel is the story of Dr. Abelard Cabral, whose quiet act of protecting his daughter from Trujillo's predatory gaze destroys his entire family. The aftermath of Oscar's death ripples outward, with Ybón's haunting visit to the hospital and Lola's eventual permanent departure from the Dominican Republic. Together, these events show how every branch of the family tree is bent by the same generational storm.

Lola's rebellion, Belicia's romance, and Abelard's ruin

Belicia undergoes puberty and acquires a body that draws sudden, intense attention from men around her.

La Fea's first attempt to kidnap Belicia is fought off when José and colleagues from the restaurant intervene.

A golden mongoose with a woman's singing voice appears in the canefields and guides the barely conscious Belicia to the main road.

On the same night Belicia wakes from her coma screaming for her lost baby, Trujillo is shot dead by assassins.

La Inca arranges for Belicia to emigrate; on the plane to New York, Belicia sits beside the man who will become her husband.

Yunior and Lola have a brief three-night romantic fling during their time at Rutgers, which she ends because she has a boyfriend.

Lola declares she does not believe in curses — only in life — as she prepares to leave Santo Domingo with her mother.

Socorro walks into the path of an oncoming ammunition truck and is killed instantly, weeks after giving birth to Belicia.

The capitán confronts Oscar outside Ybón's car, punches him twice, and threatens to kill him if they meet again.

Oscar returns to Paterson visibly disfigured from the beating and quietly writes out the word 'fukú' for Yunior.

Oscar arrives at Yunior's apartment slim and seemingly at peace, borrowing money he claims is for a security deposit on an apartment.

Belicia, Lola, and Yunior all fly separately to Santo Domingo in an attempt to talk Oscar into coming home.

In the canefields, Oscar tells his captors that if they kill him, he will wait for them on the other side as an avenger.

A long-delayed package arrives from the Dominican Republic containing Oscar's manuscripts and a final letter addressed to Lola.

Yunior expresses hope that Lola's unnamed daughter will one day read Oscar's writings and finally break the family's fukú.

This pool traces the pivotal turning points that determine the fates of the Cabral-de León clan across generations. Belicia's transformation into a young woman sets in motion the chain of events that will force her out of the Dominican Republic, while the golden mongoose and Trujillo's assassination mark the razor-thin line between doom and survival. Back in New Jersey, the small moments that define relationships — Yunior and Lola's brief fling, Lola's quiet rejection of the curse, Oscar's return from the Dominican Republic disfigured but defiant — reveal the emotional architecture beneath the novel's epic scope. Oscar's final journey is framed by a series of escalating decisions: borrowing money under false pretenses, refusing to be talked out of his pursuit, and delivering a last speech before his death. The pool closes with Yunior sorting through what remains — Oscar's manuscripts, a final letter, and the fragile hope that Lola's daughter might one day end the curse for good.