Paola's mother is told by doctors that her symptoms are a 'tropical virus,' when in fact she is pregnant with Paola, the unplanned third daughter. The protagonist thus begins existence as a medical misdiagnosis, framing a whole life around being initially unwanted and mistaken for sickness.
Being the youngest of three daughters shapes self-perception as the belated afterthought who inherits a family already in motion. The character observes older siblings' paths rather than setting her own, absorbing roles and expectations defined before her arrival.
Adult events (a father's departure, religious hypocrisy, financial decline) are narrated through a child's literal, unironic perception, so the reader sees consequences before explanations. This shows how children register the emotional weather of a household long before they can name its causes.
A binational Colombian-Ecuadorian household and its physical relocations parallel the internal fracturing of the family as parents separate and daughters scatter. Geographic instability and emotional instability are presented as the same experience viewed from different angles.