The Missing Peace Summary

A girl of fourteen plays around the burned ruins of a schoolhouse with a young man named Raymond. Raymond wants to have sex with her, but she declines. Raymond tells the story of how he got his limp: the night of the military coup in Port-au-Prince, he had an old regime uniform on and was shot in the leg by his friend, Toto, who was fighting for the new regime. Only the "password"—Peace—prevented Toto from killing him.

The girl returns home to her grandmother. Her grandmother rents out rooms in their house to visiting journalists and tourists. They have a new roomer, named Emilie, a woman from America. The girl visits Emilie, and probes her about what regime she is on the side of and why she has visited Haiti. The girl's name is revealed...