The following version of this book was used to create the guide: Garcia, Gabriela. Of Women and Salt. Picador, 2021.

Garcia’s novel follows the lineage of two families whose lives become interconnected. The chapters alternate between the perspectives of different women, spanning across time and location.

The novel begins in 2018 with Carmen, a middle-aged woman living in Miami, who begs her daughter, Jeanette, to find the will to defeat her drug addiction.

The narrative then shifts to María Isabel, Carmen’s great-grandmother, in Camagüey, 1866. She is the only female employee at a cigar workshop and becomes involved in the underground anti-Spanish political movement after her mother’s death. María marries Antonio, a co-worker at the cigar workshop, who introduces her to literature including Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables, in which she finds comfort. Antonio is shot for his refusal to declare loyalty to the Spanish crow at the same moment that María is giving birth to their daughter, Cecilia.

The readers then hear from the perspective of Jeanette in 2014, aged 27 and struggling with sobriety. Jeanette takes in her neighbor’s child, Ana, for a few days after Ana’s mother Gloria is arrested by ICE. However, Carmen persuades Jeanette to call the police and Ana is subsequently removed from Jeanette’s care.

Ana’s mother, Gloria, is in a family detention center in Texas. A guard pressures Gloria to sign a voluntary departure form. Her narrative reveals to the reader that she originally fled El Salvador to escape the person who killed her brother.

The reader is then taken back in time to Miami in 2002. Teenage Jeanette meets an older man, Johnson, who encourages her to use hard drugs for the first time and sexually abuses her. While the pair are entangled on the beach, Jeanette spots a dead body in the water. Johnson runs away and leaves Jeanette stranded.

The narrative then switches to the perspective of Gloria in Mexico in 2016. She recalls Ana joining her at the detention center and how they found it hard to adjust to life in Mexico. Gloria also reveals that Ana’s father was a gang member who raped her.

Carmen hosts Thanksgiving dinner for her family in Miami, 2016. She confronts Jeanette’s boyfriend, Mario, over his use of prescription medication. Jeanette tries to talk to Carmen about her drug abuse and also the molestation that she suffered at the hands of her father, but Carmen refuses to engage. Carmen follows the trail of blood and growling sounds coming from her neighbor’s house to find a caged panther in their living room.

Ana is in Irapuato in the year 2018. Ana and Gloria have been living in Mexico for four years, working as domestic helpers for a wealthy couple. Gloria is diagnosed with advanced cancer and does not have the money to pay for chemotherapy.

In 2015, Maydelis, Jeanette’s cousin, is hosting Jeanette in Cuba. Maydelis and Jeanette decide to head to Camagüey, where their grandmother Dolores lives. Jeanette finds two books - one is a copy of Cecilia Valdés and the other is Les Misérables, both from the 19th Century. The phrase “We are force” is written in the margin of Les Misérables. Jeanette attempts to steal Les Misérables but later confesses to Maydelis that she took the book and returns it.

Dolores, in Camagüey in 1959, is the victim of an abusive relationship with her husband, Daniel, who is a political revolutionary. After Daniel almost kills her, Dolores stabs him to death with a machete. Unbeknownst to Dolores, Carmen witnesses Dolores setting fire to Daniel’s body in the back yard.

The narrative returns to Jeanette, who is working at a beauty counter in Miami in 2006. Jeanette has recently entered into a relationship with Mario, who is a user and dealer of drugs. Jeanette’s own addiction becomes more serious.

The final chapter of the novel is told from Ana’s perspective in 2019 as she undertakes a treacherous journey to be smuggled across the border to the USA. Eventually, Ana reaches Miami and knocks on the door of the neighboring house. Carmen answers and welcomes Ana to stay. She reveals that Jeanette died of a drug overdose. Carmen also admits to Ana that she was responsible for Ana’s removal from Jeanette’s care. Ana ends up staying at the house permanently and, on her fifteenth birthday, Carmen gives her the copy of Les Misérables found in Dolores’s house. Carmen says that after Dolores died, Maydelis sent the book to Jeanette. Beneath the words “We are force”, Jeanette has added “We are more than we think we are”.