Yunior returns as the narrator as the setting shifts to the Dominican Republic in the 1950s. Here, he stylizes himself as a semi-omniscient storyteller akin to Uatu the Watcher, a character from the The Fantastic Four and other Marvel Comics.

When Belicia is only a few weeks old, her father, Abelard Cabral, is imprisoned by the Trujillo regime. The family is broken apart, and Belicia ends up an orphan in the care of a string of abusive foster parents. At the age of nine, Belicia is finally recovered by her father’s cousin La Inca, a widow who raises the girl as her daughter. When La Inca finds Belicia, the girl is locked in a chicken coop with horrific, life-threatening burns on her back.

After young Belicia recovers, the two live in Baní, where La Inca owns and operates a successful bakery. Through Belicia, La Inca hopes to recapture the glory of the Cabral family name. She pulls strings to have Belicia sent to El Redentor, one of the city’s top private schools, and constantly reminds the girl that her father was one of the most respected doctors in the Dominican Republic.