Chapter 1 serves as a prologue: The scene takes place several years after the main action of the novel. (The main plot arc begins in Chapter 2 and unfolds chronologically.) The year is 2000. Chula Santiago, the novel’s first-person narrator and protagonist, examines a photograph of her former maid, Petrona Sánchez (the secondary protagonist and first-person narrator of the “Petrona” chapters). Chula and her family have escaped to Los Angeles following the traumatic events described in the body of the novel.

In the photograph, Petrona holds an infant in her arms and stands next to an “afroed and striking” man (1), her husband Gorrión, which is a false name. Chula calculates that the photo was taken nine months after she and her family fled Colombia; Petrona was raped and impregnated that same month. Chula recalls the process of gaining asylum and U.S. citizenship. After gaining American citizenship, Chula sends Petrona a letter and receives the photograph with Petrona’s reply. Chula writes obliquely because she feels unable to express her burdened thoughts and emotions directly. She recalls writing “paragraph after paragraph about salt” (3). The final chapter of the novel will depict Petrona receiving Chula’s letter from L.