In 1879, Pilar - by some accounts the prettiest of the daughters of Ricardo Torres - is still unmarried and without even a suitor. She is well beyond the age in which her older sisters married and began families of their own, and her younger half sisters tease her relentlessly about being a spinster. Despite living in a large household, Pilar often feels lonely. In addition, she is still grieving the fact that her mother died when she was a small child, and though the stepmother that raised her was not unkind, Pilar mourns the fact that she has no memories of her birth mother. She loves her family and the mountain community of Juan Gonz