Chapters One through Five

Isabel Pacay, the oldest of four children, is a teenage girl taking care of the family because her mother, Manuela, is very ill. She realizes that "by being the first, she was now the last," because she must now put everyone else's needs before her own. One morning her father leaves without breakfast, and Isabel follows him under the guise of going to get the water. She watches him as he sacrifices a chicken to both the native and Christian gods, while praying specifically for Isabel. She returns home and prepares breakfast. After the younger children leave for school, Isabel's mother goes to the altar and performs the healing rituals as instructed by Eziquel Coxol, the town healer. Isabel worries that her mother will never get better, and that she will be forever stuck as the woman of the house. Her dream is to...