Summary

Chapter 1, “Escape” begins in 1977, when a group of five women, all of whom all lesbians, secretly travel from their urban homes in Montevideo, Uruguay, for a seven-day trip to the rural fishing village of Cabo Polonio. The group is led by Flaca, 21 years old, who had met Romina at a secret Communist meeting in 1973. After having a brief and passionate romance, they broke up but have remained profound friends. They planned the trip after Romina’s recent arrest and imprisonment for political organizing, which is considered a crime under Uruguay’s recent military dictatorship. Flaca has also brought on the trip Anita, a housewife who she is having a passionate affair with. They have also brought along the severe older woman Malena and the wide-eyed 16-year-old Paz, two other lesbians they came across in the city.

After arriving in the dark and camping...