THE HOUSE OF THE SPIRITS

Plot Summary

The story begins with the del Valle family and their oldest and youngest daughters, Rosa and
Clara. Rosa is engaged to a man named Esteban Trueba, who is away in the country’s north working in
the mines. However, she passes away when she consumes some poisoned brandy that was meant for
her father, Severo (presumably sent by one of his political enemies). Clara, who was born with
clairvoyant abilities, predicted this accidental death. She later witnesses her sister’s autopsy, and the
shock of this, combined with the prophecy coming true, stuns her into silence for the next nine years.

Following Rosa’s death, Esteban leaves the mines and takes over his family’s countryside
hacienda, the Tres Marías. He becomes an extremely successful and feared patrón; he also begins to
rape the young peasant women on his estate. This leads to him fathering a number of illegitimate
children, including one born to the first of his victims, a woman named Pancha García. Esteban also
frequents the company of a local sex worker, Tránsito Soto, who asks him for a loan of 50 pesos to
follow her dream of traveling to the capital and becoming rich and famous. She promises to repay the
loan someday.

Esteban returns to the city a decade later to see his dying mother. In order to fulfill her
deathbed wish of continuing the Trueba line, Esteban visits the del Valles to enquire whether they have
any more marriageable daughters. Clara predicted his arrival, having finally broken her silence a few
months ago to announce that she would soon marry her sister’s fiancé. After marrying, Clara and
Esteban move into a grand new house that Esteban builds for them. Clara soon becomes pregnant and
gives birth to a daughter, Blanca.

When Blanca is a few years old, the family visits Tres Marías for the first time. Blanca meets and
befriends Pedro Tercero García, the son of Esteban’s foreman, Pedro Segundo García; the two children
form an immediate connection. The family returns to the city when Clara becomes pregnant again, and
she gives birth to twin boys, Jaime and Nicolás. The family spends their summers at the hacienda, and
Blanca and Pedro Tercero’s friendship eventually develops into a deep and enduring love.

In Blanca’s adolescence, a massive earthquake devastates the hacienda and shatters every bone
in Esteban’s body. The children are sent to boarding school while Clara stays behind to care for her
husband; however, his increasing ill temper drives the couple apart. Having faked an illness, Blanca
eventually comes back to Tres Marías and discovers that Esteban has banished Pedro Tercero from the
hacienda for spreading socialist ideas among the peasants. The two begin to meet in secret and
consummate their relationship.

A visiting French count, Jean de Satigny, discovers their affair and informs Esteban. An enraged
Esteban whips Blanca violently and strikes Clara when she defends her daughter; Clara never speaks to
him again, and mother and daughter depart for the city. Esteban hunts down Pedro Tercero but does
not kill him, chopping off his fingers instead; he later regrets his violent urges.

When Blanca is discovered to be pregnant with Pedro Tercero’s child, Esteban forcibly marries
her off to the French count. However, Blanca runs away from her marital home when she discovers the
count’s erotic experiments with their servants. She returns home and gives birth to a daughter, Alba,
whom Clara predicts will have a lucky and happy life and whom everyone in the family, especially
Esteban, dotes on.

Esteban slowly becomes estranged from everyone in his family except Alba. He also actively
enters politics, becoming a senator in the Conservative Party. Clara passes away peacefully when Alba is
a young child, and her death leaves Esteban overwhelmed with grief. Alba grows up under the influence
of her uncles, mother, and grandfather. Blanca reignites her affair with Pedro Tercero, who is now a
revolutionary songwriter. Esteban eventually ships Nicolás abroad for his eccentric dabbling in
spiritualism. Alba grows up and attends university, where she meets and falls in love with Miguel—the
younger brother of Nicolás’s girlfriend. Alba supports Miguel’s revolutionary activities out of love for
him, and she celebrates with him when the Socialists come to power.

Esteban and his fellow party members organize a military coup to topple the new government;
however, after the coup succeeds, the army refuses to relinquish control. Jaime is caught in the chaos
and killed by some power-hungry soldiers. Esteban comes to see the fault of his ways and eventually
helps Blanca and Pedro Tercero flee the country; the couple settles down in Canada, finally happy and at
peace.

Alba is arrested for her ties to Miguel, who has joined the guerrillas. Colonel Esteban García, the
grandson of Esteban by Pancha García, rapes and tortures her. García and Alba met before at Tres
Marías, where García molested Alba as a child. He now vents his hatred of the Truebas upon Alba.
Clara’s spirit visits Alba, urging her to stay alive and write. 

Esteban goes to Tránsito Soto, who is now a rich and well-connected owner of a hotel in the
city. She repays her debt to Esteban by finding and returning Alba to him. Alba is now pregnant, though
she does not know if the child is Miguel’s or a product of rape. However, Alba chooses to let go of her
hatred, hoping to break the cycle of hatred and vengeance. Alba and Esteban pen their family’s story
together, after which Esteban passes away peacefully. Alba embraces the ambiguity surrounding her
child’s parentage and waits for Miguel and the birth of her child.