The introduction to Book 3 describes Doña Guadalupe’s transition from orphaned child to mother of eight. The synopsis ends with Lupe’s birth.

In 1872, 21-year-old Leonides Camargo is enjoying a drunk walk by the beach when he is beaten by law enforcement and conscripted to fight in the Spanish army against his will. For two years, he fights the Yaqui Indians, killing every Indian in sight regardless of age or gender. Then one day he sees a small girl running toward him, her hair on fire. He decides to save her instead of killing her. He kills a fellow soldier who is about to kill her and takes off on a weeklong journey back to his house with the little girl in tow. When he explains to his wife Rosa what happened, she’s initially scared, but when she sees the little girl, she realizes the child is as innocent as any of her own daughters. They run away to the north the same night Leonides comes home, taking the small girl and their three daughters with them.

At first Rosa cannot bring herself to love the little girl Leonides saved because she feels like she lost her parents and siblings because of this child.