Chapter 1 Summary

The Farming of Bones begins with the narrator describing her lover Sebastien Onius. Sebastien is a cane cutter. He is one of many Haitians who came across the border to find work in the Dominican sugar cane mill settlements. Sebastien's body and face are scarred from the cane, but he is handsome to Amabelle, the servant companion to a wealthy Dominican army wife. Amabelle admires Sebastien's size and the strength of his body after four seasons in the cane fields.

In Amabelle's little square room, by the light of her oil lantern, Sebastien tells her to take off her clothes and be just herself, without the uniform "they" make her wear in the house of Senora Valencia and Senor Pico. He sits in the shadow outside of the lantern light so that Amabelle will learn to sense his presence even when she cannot...