A child describes how each person in the family has hair that looks and acts different, Papa's like a broom, Kiki's like fur, and Mama's with the smell of warm bread.
Demonstates how traditional Spanish-language proverbs and sayings about manners and human relations that a grandmother might repeat apply to ordinary situations that arise during the course of the day.
After the disappearance of his father, Pin Carpue accepts a job as a corpse watcher and meets the bone magician who claims to be able to raise the dead.
Eighteen-year-old Bitterblue, queen of Monsea, realizes her heavy responsibility and the futility of relying on advisors who surround her with lies as she tries to help her people to heal from the thirty-five-year spell cast by her father.