Summary

Part 1, Celeste Like the Sky – Eleven year-old Celeste Marconi and her friends, Lucila, Marisol, and Gloria, are thrilled to be out of Juana Ross School for the weekend even though it is foggy and raining. Cristobal Williams catches up with them as they leave. The friends go to grab a bite to eat at Café Iris on Cerro Baron (Baron Hill). Their city in Chile, Valparaiso, is composed of forty-two hills on the coast of the Pacific Ocean. Celeste and the others notice more ships than usual out on the ocean. Something seems wrong about it all to Celeste.

At Café Iris, they all eat sopapillas—fried pumpkin bread—and watch the café’s magician perform. Cristobal is especially interested in the magician, for he himself has a pendulum he...