"The Curing Woman" tells the story of Doña Marcelina Trujillo Benidorm. Marcelina is born into a rich, aristocratic family in Spain. Her mother is one of the family's servants. When her mother is forced to leave the service of the family at the end of her ten-year term, Mrs. Trujillo Benidorm, the wife of Marcelina's father, refuses to let her take nine-year-old Marcelina with her.

Marcelina is heartbroken. When she looks at her mother's face as her mother is leaving, she realizes it is like looking into a mirror; it is as if her mother had given birth to her own twin.

For four years Marcelina is well cared for and receives a good education. Then one morning a servant brings her a piece of paper, and the information contained on it leads Marcelina to travel to a place called Alhambra. In one of...