Angela Vicario's husband returns his new bride to her family hours after the marriage, claiming she is a dishonored woman. Angela's family forces her to reveal her first lover's name, and her twin brothers set out to murder the man, Santiago Nasar. As the murder is planned, no one in the town tries to stop the crime, which results in an entire society put on trial for the murder.

When she is bitten by a rabid dog in colonial South America, twelve-year-old Sierva María is sent to a convent to endure torturous therapies and meets bookish Father Cayetano Delaura, with whom she shares a doomed affair.

Fernando returns home after a prolonged absence to attend to his most beloved brother, Dario, an AIDS patient whose health is slowly deteriorating owing to his alcohol and marijuana use. Vallejo indulges in digressions into past memories that they both share, which include endless adolescent partying and homosexual love affairs. La Muerte (Death), the character around whom the narrative ultimately revolves, appears throughout, touching different members...