Section I and II The book's first sections are told through the eyes of the sisters, Bibiana and Belonísia. The story begins with the sisters sneaking into their grandmother's room and locating a knife beneath her bed, locked away in a suitcase. Tempted, they each put the mysterious knife in their mouths. One sister is unharmed, but the other cuts her tongue so severely that she is never able to speak again. The sisters become emotionally and mentally entwined as one must be a voice for the other. "That's how I became a part of Belonísia, just as she was becoming part of me...we felt like Siamese twins, sharing the same tongue to make the words that revealed what we needed to become." They grow up together in their parent's Afro-Brazilian sharecropping village in Bahia state, Brazil. As childhood ends, a pregnant Bibiana secretly departs in the middle of the night with her boyfriend, a local union organizer. Together, they plan to fight deep-rooted injustices far from home. However, they shortly return to the homestead with their newborn baby and find that Belonísia has married an abusive drunk.
Section III The last part of the book is told through the eyes of Santa Rita the fisherwoman, an African divinity who has been summoned by the sisters' father and channels the community's anger and strength. Zeca Chapéu Grande, the sisters’ father, works as a
Jarê curador in his community and is sought out to cure ailments of the body and spirit with prayers and roots. == Background ==