Summary

In Part I, “Greenhouse,” when Julián’s stepdaughter Daniela cannot sleep, he tells her “a series of stories he makes up” called “‘The Private Lives of Trees’” (13). The main characters “are a poplar tree and a baobab” (13). Although his wife Verónica’s daughter is not his, he cannot help thinking of Daniela as his own. He joined their family three years prior.

Fernando is Daniela’s father. Although he is more attractive and makes more money than Julián, “he isn’t . . . Julián’s enemy, or anyone else’s,” which Julián thinks is “precisely the problem” (13). His story has no enemies (13). Fernando sometimes feels like a blot, but everyone can at times.

Verónica “isn’t back yet from her drawing class” (14). She is missing from the blue room where Daniela sleeps. The apartment has one blue...