In Chapter One:Dede,1994 and Circa 1943 Who is coming to vist?What does Dedé think of her?

It is March 1994, and Dede is arranging an interview with a "gringa dominica" to talk about her sisters. At three o'clock, she hears a car door slam as the interviewer arrives. Dede gives her a tour of the house where she and her sisters grew up. They stop in front of three pictures of the sisters when they were young, and Dede realizes that she misses her own young self more than she misses her sisters. Her picture is not there, and she explains to the woman, "I have this hallway just for the girls." The woman reveals that she knows hardly anything about the family when she asks where Dede comes in the birth order. This is a relief for Dede, since now she can spend the time talking about "the simple facts that give Dede the illusion that hers was just an ordinary family, too."

Dede finds the woman unpretencious and engaging. She also thinks the woman makes "perfect sense."