The Incredible and Sad Tale of Innocent Erendira and Her Heartless Grandmother Summary

Fourteen-year-old Erendira and her grandmother live in a huge mansion built by Erendira's grandfather, Amadis, an infamous smuggler. She waits on her grandmother, Cinderella-style, hand and foot, day and night. She fixes her hair, dresses her, put on her makeup, cooks all the meals, cleans and does laundry. Erendira learns to perform her duties while half-asleep, as her half-asleep grandmother continues to bark orders. When Erendira drops, exhausted, into bed the wind blows over her candle that sets the mansion ablaze. Erendira's grandmother tells her she will not live long enough to repay her for the disaster. Erendira's grandmother tricks her out to prostitution in a squalid encounter with an old widower. After all the men in the town spend their...