The Stories of Eva Luna

Following the death of her parents when she was a young child, Analía Torres lives with her uncle Eugenio until she’s six. Then, Eugenio parts her from her nursemaid and sends her to a Catholic boarding school in the capital. Every six months, Eugenio sends Analía a note praising her for planning to be a nun after graduation—but this isn’t Analía’s plan at all. Suspecting her uncle of wanting to get her out of the picture so that he can take over her inherited estate, Analía announces her intention to marry and run it with her future husband instead. Eugenio and the Mother Superior are scandalized by her cheek, but after Analía leaves the office, the Mother Superior tells Eugenio that her behavior might be a result of his apparent lack of attention to her.

A month later, Eugenio arranges for Analía to exchange letters with his son, Analía’s cousin Luis. At first, still suspicious of her uncle’s plans, Analía avoids reading the letters, but she soon grows enamored with the sensitive, intelligent character she finds in them. She begins a correspondence that grows more and more intimate. Analía imagines the letter-writer as an ugly man, to balance his delicate spirit. When she finally meets her cousin Luis at the age of 18, she’s disturbed to find a pleasant-looking young man with vague, empty eyes standing there—but she resolves to love the letter-writer no matter what.

Analía and Luis embark on an unhappy marriage. He isn’t cruel to her, but there’s no passion between them, and whenever she brings up the letters, Luis changes the subject. Luis and Eugenio oversee the estate together, and they shut Analía out of all the decision-making. After their son is born, things between Luis and Analía worsen further, and they barely disguise their animosity with politeness. Their tense relationship makes Luis distant, and Analía takes his place as Eugenio’s consultant.

Eventually, it’s time for Analía’s son to go to school. He attends school nearby and comes home on the weekends. Being at school seems to make her son happier than he is at home. After three months at school, her son comes home with a report card. When Analía reads it, she grows elated, asking her son all about the school. Not long after, Luis dies after a horse he tries to mount on a dare kicks him in the testicles. After the funeral, Eugenio tries to convince Analía to give up her land and live in the capital, but she refuses, bidding her uncle goodbye and telling him that the land is finally hers completely.

Analía burns her bedsheets, arranges her affairs at the estate, puts on a white dress, and goes to visit her son at school. Entering the classroom while the children are outside playing, Analía introduces herself as her son’s mother and empties a box full of the love letters of her youth onto the teacher’s desk. She tells the teacher that she knows he wrote them because he looks just like the man she imagined, and she recognized his handwriting on her son’s report card. The teacher confesses to writing the letters for Luis, his boyhood friend. He asks for her forgiveness, telling her how happy the correspondence made him. Analía hands him his crutches, and they walk outside into the sun together.