Summary

Part One is set in 1957 in Madrid, Spain, and opens with a quote from U.S. President Harry Truman who did not approve of Francisco Franco's policies as dictator of Spain.

Chapter 1 opens with Rafael Torres Moreno, known to his family as Rafa, is at the butcher shop where he works. Women are waiting to buy the blood of the butchered animals that they will use for blood sausage. Rafa imagines himself a matador, but his supervisor jerks him back to the present. He then remembers the day when he was a child and soldiers killed his father. He was not able to stay quiet, and the soldiers found his hiding place. He shakes himself from that memory and waits on a customer. He wonders how much more blood the country will have to give.

In Chapter 2, Rafa's younger sister, Ana Torres Moreno...