The Spanish Daughter

The narrative jumps back in time two weeks. After a week of traveling from Spain on the Valbanera, Puri and Cristóbal arrive in La Habana, Cuba, and immediately board the British steamer, Andes. Cristóbal loses his temper with the front desk worker, and Puri thinks about his lack of patience for incompetence. As Cristóbal checks them in, Puri sees a man with a half-burned face, who looks away as he meets Puri’s gaze.

Puri sees the man again on the third day of the cruise. She and Cristóbal go to dinner, and Puri notices a vaudeville act on the ship. She suggests Cristóbal join, which starts an argument. He is a writer, who spent the previous week on the Valbanera in his room. He asks her to be quiet in public, and she refuses. They discuss selling the chocolate shop in Sevilla and the plantation Puri has inherited in Ecuador, which will give Cristóbal the chance to finish his novel.

Later, as she remembers this quarrel, Puri catalogs their differences and how she turned the bookshop given to Cristóbal by his father and grandfather into a chocolate shop. Puri hears her first name—Maria—whispered in her ear as a rope tightens around her neck. She struggles and breaks free. Yelling for help, Puri sees Cristóbal fight the man with the half-burned face on the deck as she waits to hit him with an oar. He stabs Cristóbal in the stomach, and she hits the man with the oar. The man tumbles overboard, and as a wave hits the ship, Cristóbal falls overboard after him.

Back in the present, Puri and Tomás are on a boat in Vinces, Ecuador, where Puri’s father’s plantation is located. Puri thinks about Cristóbal as she pretends to be him. Musing about men’s independence, she struggles to maintain her balance on the boat. Tomás explains cacao to Puri as a young man named Paco rows the boat. Puri sees the cacao in its pure, natural state for the first time.

They reach Vinces, and the plantation administrator can’t be found. Puri thinks about how folks call Vinces Little Paris, and she sees the striking similarities, from the Baroque architecture to shops with French names and clothing that she would see in a European capital.

They finally see the estate’s administrator, Martin Sabater, and Puri joins him and Tomás in his car for the drive to her father’s mansion. As they arrive, Puri sees the grand house, unlike any structure she’s seen before. Inside, she meets a familiar-looking face, which she assumes belongs to one of her sisters. Introducing herself as Angélica, the woman expresses regret about Puri’s demise. She introduces Puri-as-Cristóbal to her French husband, Laurent Dupret. Puri also meets Catalina, her other sister, and Puri notices the quick glance the sisters share. Puri watches Martin’s coat open to reveal his revolver, and she recognizes that her life remains in danger. She is halfway across the world, and no one will protect her here. Tomás proceeds to read her father’s will.

Puri recounts the scene of her husband’s murder, blaming herself for his presence on the trip at all. The British captain ruled it an accident, unable to find evidence of her husband’s killer in the ship’s records. He told her that British authorities had jurisdiction on the ship, so she couldn’t involve the authorities in Ecuador. Learning that she planned to continue with her trip, he warned her of the dangers for a single woman, noting a record of accidents and violence faced by missionaries.

Leaving his office, she returned to her room, where she obsessively cleaned Cristóbal’s typewriter. The wife of the ship’s doctor—Dr. Costa—visited and told her that the captain had the murderer’s suitcase. Puri wanted to confront him, but Dr. Costa’s wife encouraged her to find the suitcase while he had breakfast.

The suitcase contained a few articles of clothing and a Bible. Inside the Bible, Puri found her name written on a piece of paper and a check from a bank in Vinces without a beneficiary filled in. She pocketed these items, keeping her discovery from the doctor’s wife. Returning to her room, she considered what she should do with Cristóbal’s clothes. After considering giving them to the third-class passengers, she decided to wear them to travel more safely.

Tomás reads the will to the Ecuadorean children and Puri, though he has read it already to Angélica and Catalina. Alberto, their brother, has renounced his inheritance. The will gives control of the plantation to Puri, and with Alberto’s decision, Puri controls almost half of her late father’s assets.

Tomás explains that Ecuadorian law prohibits Cristóbal from inheriting more than 25% of Puri’s inheritance, and the remainder will be split between her siblings. Puri considers unmasking herself and declaring that she’s alive, but viewing Martin’s gun, she decides to remain in disguise. She tells them that she’s a writer, taking on Cristóbal’s vocation, and that she’s considering selling her stake.

Catalina insists that Puri stay at the mansion after the will has been read, and Angélica hesitates very briefly before agreeing. Puri decides to stay, knowing the danger to her life persists.

The narrative skips back to three months before Puri arrived when Tomás read the will to Angélica and Catalina. Angélica braces herself as she hears her half-sister, whom she has never met, will inherit most of her late father’s estate. She outlines her father’s preference for Puri, which is based on her European birth and heritage. Simultaneously, she catalogs her own many virtues, including how she has run the estate.

Angélica remembers her father’s mercurial moods, which were based on the plantation’s harvests: A good year meant a good mood, and he isolated himself during bad ones, attended only by Martin, who acted more like a son than Alberto. Alberto preferred philosophy to the plantation and then entered the seminary.

As Tomás finishes reading the will, Catalina muses about the transitory state of earthly wealth, and Alberto declares he will give up his inheritance. Upon hearing that all three sisters will share his inheritance, Angélica complains bitterly. Laurent whispers to Angélica that he will take care of it.

Puri goes horseback riding with Martin to see the plantation. He asks whether she would like a Western or English saddle, and without understanding the difference, she chooses the English saddle, which is harder to mount. She finally mounts Pacha, a mare who promptly rears up, and Puri slides off. Covered in mud but determined to ride, Puri tries again and succeeds.

They approach the center of the plantation, and Puri observes the wild and cultivated nature that surrounds her. A worker opens a cacao pod as they watch, and Puri asks Martin about the process and where the worker takes the cacao. Pacha soon takes off, ignoring Puri’s commands and kicking. Puri loses her glasses and jumps off. Wounded, she looks for her glasses until Martin approaches with them.

She notices a burned-down house where the foreman once lived with his son and wife. The fire killed the foreman, but the wife and son survived, and the son’s face was burned. Martin tells Puri he’s now a grown man.

Back at the house, Puri remains convinced that the son burned in the fire killed Cristóbal. Julia, one of the maids, interrupts her and insists on tending to her wounds from her adventure with Martin. Puri allows her to dress the cut and scrape on her arm. She finishes, telling Puri she will fetch her for dinner. Unnerved by the number of servants at the house, Puri demurs, telling Julia she will arrive at dinner on her own. As Julia leaves, Puri asks about the foreman and his family. Julia offers little information, only saying that the surviving members moved. She then asks if Catalina is married, and Julia responds coldly that Catalina has seen a vision of the Virgin Mary and that Puri should stay away from her. Julia interprets Puri’s question as one driven by desire.

The narrative jumps back three months. Catalina narrates, describing an encounter with Angélica following the reading of the will. Followed by Laurent, with her bird Ramona on her shoulder, Angélica asks Catalina leading questions about the will. Catalina moves her book—condemned by the Vatican—so Angélica can’t see the cover.

Angélica tells her that she could marry if Puri doesn’t inherit the estate, and they would have enough for a dowry. Incredulous, Catalina doubts anyone would want to marry her at 23. Angélica responds that suitors think she cares only for the Virgin Mary and doesn’t want a family. Catalina observes that Angélica has a talent for manipulating her.

At dinner, Puri talks to Angélica, who is dressed in a long, black sequined dress. Her bird, Ramona, joins her, asking constantly for cacao beans. Catalina asks why Angélica brought Ramona to dinner as they eat boiled shrimp and crab legs. Alberto asks Puri about southern Spain and the walled cities and windmills from Don Quixote. Puri mentions olive trees, and Angélica notes their father loved olives.

Martin asks if Puri will stay for the city’s celebrations in the days to come, which Laurent dismisses. Martin argues that these celebrations represent an opportunity to talk to foreign buyers. Laurent suggests a regatta would be useful, and the two men briefly disagree about how European they should be. Catalina chides Alberto for an off-color joke about the clergy, and Puri offers to make hot chocolate. Catalina explains how as exporters, they haven’t tried it. Laurent remarks that the French “practically invented chocolate” (67). Puri disagrees, telling him the Spanish introduced chocolate to Europe, and Martin agrees with her.

After dinner, the sisters play instruments while Puri loses herself in her memories of Cristóbal. Martin interrupts her and asks her to join him and Alberto in town for a drink. She agrees, taking the check from the steamer with her.

Puri accompanies Martin and Alberto to the bar, and there, Puri is excited to see how men interact without women around. Close in age, Martin and Alberto grew up together, and Martin jokes that he tried to save Alberto from a life of celibacy and a tender wrist, implying he masturbates often. They drink, encouraging Puri to drink more, while Alberto jokes with Martin about his history with women.

Alberto begins to discuss Aristotle’s theory of gender difference, segueing into Greek mythology, as Puri again loses herself in her memories. They get her attention and ask whether goodness is inborn or not. After much discussion about the nature of goodness, Alberto leaves, and Martin invites a sex worker to sit with him. Carmela, another sex worker, finds Puri and begins to grab at her pants, after kissing her neck. To avoid detection, Puri asks Carmela to go somewhere else, and they go to Carmela’s flat. Puri tells her that she lost her wife and will never love another woman again. Paying Carmela for her silence about the evening, Puri asks where she can find the nearest hotel.