The speaker's name, in the first of these stories, is Clemencia; her mother, a Chicana, told her never to marry a Mexican. She says she will never marry, period. She doesn't trust men because she's helped too many be unfaithful to their wives. She describes the difference between her parents' backgrounds, tells something of her own life (she is an artist) and her alienation from her mother after her father's death. Then she addresses her ex-lover, Drew, a married man with a son. Years ago, before the son (now apparently in his late teens) was conceived, she was a student of his father, who seduced her and convinced her that he loved her. But in the end, he went back to his wife; he and Clemencia, however, continued their affair until a number of years after the boy was born. Alternately, Clemencia addresses the son himself, whom she now has as a lover. She feels she is in control of both of them, and she is vengeful, hating Drew's wife. She describes things she has done to hurt the wife and, indirectly, the man himself; she seems to be using the son, whom she despises, for this purpose only.
In "Bread," a sketch of less than one page, the speaker describes driving with her lover in the city (perhaps San Antonio) where she grew up; they are eating fresh bread. He remarks that it is a "charming city," and she remembers a child's death there.
"Eyes of Zapata" is told by Inés, the wife of Emiliano Zapata (an historical Mexican revolutionary leader [1879–1919]; Inés is a fictional character, but she is based on a real woman). Zapata is sleeping. Beside him, Inés muses about him and their life together. He is now a famous leader and has changed, she says, into a man who trusts no one. Their story emerges in a very non-linear fashion: In their youth, she went with him against her father's wishes and in due time bore two children. She and Zapata were never officially married, and he has other women, other children. Inés' life has always been difficult, especially during the revolutionary war; she has had to work hard just to feed her children, and Zapata has always put his work for the country ahead of his family. Inés has lived in poverty. Her mother was thought to be a witch and was killed; now the same stories are whispered about Inéz herself, and they are true, she says. She becomes an owl and circles above the countryside, where she can see everything, present, past, and future. Her monologue ends at dawn, when she tells Zapata she wants to look at him once again before he wakes and leaves her.
