Nov 12, 2009

In the Time of the Butterflies | Summary

Set in the Dominican Republic, In the Time of the Butterflies depicts the lives of the Mirabal family between 1938 and 1994. The chapters are narrated by the four Mirabal sisters, Patria, Dedé, Minerva, and María Teresa, or Mate. Alvarez arranges events in roughly chronological order, though she excludes many years from the narrative and gives only brief treatment to the period between 1960 and 1994.

Part I: Chapters 1-4 (1938 to 1946)
The novel opens in 1994 with Dedé, the surviving Mirabal sister. She meets with an American woman who...