Chapter 5: Asuncion Summary

In December of 1855, Ella writes to Princess Mathilde about living in Asuncion, the Paraguayan capital city. Franco's sisters rebuff Ella by refusing to talk to her. They spit at her and ridicule her clothes. Ella grows to despise them in return.

The previous dictator of Paraguay, Don Jose Gaspar Rodriguez de Francia, has isolated the country from the rest of the world. He was a paranoid man who was so terrified of being killed that he would force his people to stay indoors when he rode through the streets. Thousands of innocent people crowded the jails. Fear of him was so powerful that even after his death, he was known simply as "the deceased."

Because Franco and Ella aren't married, the bishop refuses to baptize baby Juan Francisco. He is also Don Carlos Antonio Lopez's brother. Don Carlos' wife and daughters...