The Intrigue

In 1943 Mexico, Ulises Linares, a twenty-nine-year-old con man, arrives in the small mountain town of Puerco Ahogado, Veracruz, to meet Perla Inclán, a fortyish spinster he has been corresponding with through a lonely hearts magazine. Ulises has been running postal scams on lonely women since his father, a lifelong grifter who taught him the trade, died three years earlier. Nearly broke and lacking his father's talent, he chose Perla over another mark simply because the train ticket was cheaper.

The Inclán guesthouse is a large, two-story home showing signs of both former grandeur and current neglect. Perla's niece, Inés, a bold young woman with curly black hair, greets Ulises with open skepticism. Perla herself is thin and prim, wearing a silver crucifix, and treats him more like an inconvenient visitor than a desired suitor. Among the few lodgers is Professor Nepomuceno, a retired teacher whose alcoholism has left him frail and behind on rent. Nepomuceno has served as a surrogate father to Inés since she was ten, teaching her about mythology, poetry, and the stars. His dog, Diógenes, is a fixture of the household.

Inés's life is one of domestic servitude. Perla controls her by withholding a regular allowance, preventing her from earning money through sewing, and insisting Inés will serve as her caretaker until she dies. Inés's mother, Encarnación, Perla's younger sister, died in a fall down the stairs when Inés was small. Inés found the body, stopped speaking for a year, and still has nightmares about the scene, though she cannot remember the full circumstances.

The town's lawyer, Cándido Sotomayor, has been courting Perla for two years, but their relationship has stalled over disagreements about finances and living arrangements involving Cándido's hypochondriac sister, Lulú. He views Ulises with suspicion and pays Inés to spy on him. After a social gathering at the guesthouse, Ulises eavesdrops on Perla and Cándido and learns she has ninety thousand pesos in the bank, transforming what he considered a modest venture into a real score.

While changing Ulises's sheets, Inés discovers letters hidden in the lining of his suitcase, written under multiple aliases to various women. She confronts him that night, slaps him when he tries to bluff, and proposes a partnership: She will help him swindle her aunt in exchange for half the money. Ulises reluctantly agrees.

Interspersed flashbacks reveal Perla's history. She grew up as the elder daughter of Don Osorio Inclán, a prosperous coffee grower whose fortune disintegrated when coffee prices collapsed and the Mexican Revolution disrupted trade. The Spanish flu killed Perla's brother Natito in 1918. Her father arranged for Perla to marry Norberto Bustillo, hoping a merger of their families' coffee companies would save the business, but Norberto asked for Encarnación's hand instead. When Encarnación refused and eloped with another man, the humiliation destroyed any chance of a merger and ruined the family.

Inés and Ulises scheme to remove Cándido from town by exploiting Lulú's hypochondria, slipping a laxative into her coffee and praising Mexico City doctors until Lulú demands her brother take her to a specialist. With Cándido gone, Inés coaches Ulises on Perla's psychology, explaining that Perla craves passion and intensity, not the gentle courtship that mirrors Cándido's stale routine. Ulises confronts Perla with insolent directness and kisses her boldly. She is clearly pleased.

When Inés learns Cándido is returning early, likely with an engagement ring, Ulises proposes to Perla with an impassioned ultimatum. They marry hastily in both a civil ceremony and a church wedding, shocking the town. Despite the marriage, Perla refuses to give Ulises access to her bank accounts, offering only occasional pocket money and expecting him to serve as her escort and chauffeur.

On a Sunday when Perla is out, Ulises picks the lock on her desk. They find the grandfather's will, leaving the house to Perla and then to Inés, along with cash. More devastating, Inés discovers hidden letters from her father, who had written repeatedly asking to reconnect; a final letter announces his death in 1942. Perla concealed every one. The discovery hardens Inés's resolve. She notes that if Perla dies without a will, her estate would pass through intestate succession, meaning property would be divided according to law rather than Perla's wishes. If husband and niece agree to split it, the matter could be settled quickly. The unspoken implication of murder crystallizes between them.

Inés prepares a poisoned bottle of sherry using toxic seeds, but when Ulises tries to serve it to Perla during her bath, Perla quarrels with him and refuses to drink. The poisoned bottle disappears. The next morning, Nepomuceno is found dead in his armchair with the missing bottle beside him. He also took sleeping pills and left a suicide note. No autopsy is performed. Both are horrified but keep silent.

The novel's most devastating revelation comes through extended flashback. Years after her elopement, Encarnación returned to Puerco Ahogado with young Inés. When she received a job offer at a film studio in Mexico City and announced she was leaving, Perla, consumed with fury at being abandoned, shoved her sister at the top of the stairs. Encarnación tumbled down and died. Young Inés witnessed the murder. Perla considered killing the child but instead embraced her and wept. When Inés eventually spoke again, she seemed to have forgotten what she saw.

A private investigator arrives looking for the man who swindled a widow in Jalisco. Ulises disguises himself, and Inés fabricates an alibi, sending the detective away satisfied. During the festival of San Fidel de las Cumbres, Ulises and Inés consummate their long-simmering attraction. On the festival's second night, Cándido reveals he saw them together. He threatens to expose Ulises unless he pays twenty thousand pesos and leaves town, and demands sexual favors from Inés. She buys time by arranging to meet him Sunday night.

That night, Inés gives Cándido a flask laced with a sleeping potion. When it fails to work fast enough, she strikes him with a rock. Ulises drives the car to the Devil's Chair, a cliff formation, but Cándido regains consciousness and attacks him. Ulises seizes the rock and beats Cándido to death. They push the car over the cliff and walk back to town in the rain. The death is accepted as an accident. When Bartolo, a local townsman, tells Inés he suspects foul play, she steers him toward the theory that Cándido died by suicide over Perla's marriage, and he agrees to let the matter rest.

Nothing fundamentally changes. Perla still controls the money. Demoralized, Ulises tells Inés he is leaving. He drives away through the fog. Inés is furious and wounded but does not ask to go with him.

Perla then confronts Inés with a posthumous letter from Cándido accusing Ulises of being a fraudster conspiring with Inés. Perla rages; Inés fires back about the hidden letters and years of cruelty, declaring she is leaving. Perla screams, "You can't leave me alone!" The words trigger Inés's long-suppressed memory: She recalls with full clarity that Perla pushed Encarnación down the stairs. Perla denies it, takes a pistol from a drawer, and shoots Inés. Ulises appears, having turned back. He carries the wounded Inés down the stairs. Perla pursues them, but Diógenes runs past her. She trips and tumbles down the staircase, landing with the same sickening thud that killed Encarnación.

Ulises drives Inés toward help, the dog in tow. She asks why he came back. He says it is easier working as a team and offers to teach her the con. They drive through the diminishing fog, clutching each other's hands.

An epilogue set in 1946 reveals the aftermath. Perla survived but has a permanent limp, and during days of delirium she confessed to killing Encarnación, destroying her reputation. Bartolo, now engaged, visits Mexico City and glimpses a woman resembling Inés in a vivid red dress entering an expensive restaurant but cannot summon the courage to approach. Inside, Ulises joins Inés at a booth. They are polished, successful partners, composing a lonely hearts letter to a new mark and planning to leave for Havana. The novel closes as they lace their fingers together, partners in crime and in life.