Summary

The day after Nina got drunk in Rome, she and her mother take a train to Florence. In a museum they see a wax sculpture exhibit of women whose skin is flayed open and whose internal organs are spilling out “artistically rumpled” (135). The figures have long hair and jewels around their throats. Their heads are “tipped up and back” (135). Nina’s mother explains that these sculptures, titled “The Dissected Graces” demonstrate “the intersection of love and death again. Of beauty […] and gore” (136). Nina’s mother also explains that the sculptures are made of “beeswax and animal fat. […] The same things we use in makeup today” (137).

The next break narrative tells the story of Agatha who dedicated her virginity to God during the Roman era. When Agatha refuses the advances of a Roman prefect, his passion morphs into “anger...