What happened to Amalia? Who was with her the night she died? Her daughter Delia considers her mother to be a disgrace even before she hears of the sordid circumstances of Amalia’s death. Delia is saddened by the news, but not surprised. Delia knew Amalia to be an ambiguous and hard-to-please woman, prone to secret deviations and capable of eluding her husband’s obsessive surveillance.