Summary

Chapter 1 (Eliza). Chapter 1 introduces the reader to Eliza and her family. She was found on the Sommers’ doorstep in a soap crate when she was just a baby. The story has several versions. Mama Fresia, the Chilean cook and housekeeper describes her as being wrapped in a man’s sweater and covered in her own excrement with a runny nose and sunburned complexion. Rose Sommers’ version is that Eliza came in a beautiful wicker basket wearing a lace-trimmed nightgown and mink coverlet. However, the details of her story change with each telling, whereas Mama Fresia’s stay the same.

Rose Sommers arrived from England a year and a half before the baby appeared on their doorstep. She came with her brother, Jeremy, who is climbing the ranks of the British Import and Export Company in Chile. They came to Chile for two reasons: for Jeremy...