Structure

The story is unconventional in structure, consisting entirely of letters to the Virgin and other saints. The characters are the writers of the letters. They do not interact with each other to create a plot, as would happen in a traditional short story. Given this unusual structure, each letter might be thought of as a mini-narrative. The small details revealed in the letters suggest the larger stories of the letter-writers' lives. It is as if each letter is a tiny window into an entire life; a glimpse of dilemmas, of suffering, of hope.

However, there is also a plot to the whole story although it does not get revealed until the last character, Rosario de Leon, appears. Then it becomes clear that she is the narrator of the story. It is she who has been standing at the shrine of the Virgin, reading all the letters and petitions...