Carmela Montiel, a twenty-year-old virgin, had just bathed in orange-blossom water and was strewing rosemary leaves on Polar Tern era's bed when the shot rang out. Aurelia no José had been destined to find with her the happiness that Amaranth had denied him, to have seven children, and to die in her arms of old age, but the bullet that entered his back and shattered his chest had been directed by a wrong interpretation of the cards.