Chita does not follow a linear path. Storytelling, flashbacks, and flashforwards are all utilized as narrative devices in this novel.

The novel first takes place in present tense, south of New Orleans on Grand Isle. The narrator overhears a story of Carmen and Viosca, which then brings us to our next setting on a small island that is being wrecked by a storm. After this story is told, readers are transported into the past in New Orleans, where we learn of La Brierre's past and childhood.

The novel then flashes forward to the future, where La Brierre is back in New Orleans as a doctor. His last venture to the island to care for a sick patient renders him ill, and Carmen cares for him until he passes away.