Content Warning: This section of the guide references characters’ use of outdated terminology to refer to the Indigenous Mayan people, alcohol addiction, physical violence (including gun violence), and suicidal ideation, which all feature in the novel.

The novel opens in the Yucatán region of Mexico, in the year 1871. Carlota Moreau is a 14-year-old girl who lives on an isolated estate called Yaxaktun with her father, Doctor Moreau. Moreau is a Frenchman who came to Mexico many years prior; he had a wife, who passed away, and Carlota is his illegitimate daughter. Carlota knows very little about her mother, and has grown up with her father, their housekeeper, Ramona, and two other “children” (later revealed to be the doctor’s hybrid creations) Lupe and Cachito. For Carlota, “the only place that was real was Yaxaktun” (8).

At the start of the novel, Carlota and her father anticipate the arrival of guests: Hernando Lizalde, the owner of the estate, and a prospective mayordomo (an employee who will take a key role in managing the estate). The previous mayordomo, a man named Melquiades, departed a year earlier. Moreau introduces Carlota to Mr.