Content Warning: Both the source text and this guide contain descriptions of racism, the sexual assault of a child, child loss, death by suicide, and anti-gay bias.

Alma Cruz, a writer from the Dominican Republic, has a writer-friend who is obsessed with a particular story that she wants to write. This friend is an otherwise successful writer, but her struggle with this untold story overshadows that acclaim in her own eyes. In pursuit of inspiration, the writer-friend travels the world, hoping to pick up the thread of the story. The writer-friend also helps to promote Alma’s writing, and Alma eventually becomes successful. However, Alma’s mother accuses her of spreading lies about the family and stops talking to her. The writer-friend suggests that Alma use the pseudonym of Scheherazade to tell her stories freely.

At a conference, Alma overhears another writer describe her writer-friend as “a piece of work” (6). During one particular meeting, the friend makes Alma swear that if something should happen to her, Alma will finish the friend’s unwritten story about a central character named Clio. Alma is not comfortable with this idea. As time passes, Alma gets tenure as a professor and buys a small house.