Upon returning to his cell, Molina offers Valentin the food he says his mother brought, insisting that Valentin stop eating prison food. When Valentin asks him to share a movie like the one about the panther woman, Molina starts a movie plot on zombies.

Meanwhile, Puig uses stream of consciousness to share the internal thoughts and distractions of both characters. Molina thinks, “The poor nurse, so unlucky, they assign her to a patient on the critical list” (172), and Valentin thinks, “the glass skull, filled with mass cards of saints and whores, someone throws the glass against the putrid wall” (168).

In the movie plot, a girl travels to the Caribbean to marry her fiancé, a widower and plantation owner. She moves in, meets the majordomo, who makes demands of the widower, has him sign papers, and destroys his alcohol. The girl is attacked by a ghostlike figurewho turns out to be the widower's first wifebut faints, and wakes up to the housekeeper taking care of her.

The couple marry, and the girl learns that the island is full of voodoo, zombies, and witch doctors who have control over the zombies.