join her sisters in opposing the regime after witnessing the atrocities of the dictatorship; and the Maria Teresa, the youngest of the group and the most sensitive, and in her diaries, she chronicles her allegiance to Minerva and recalls the physical and spiritual anguish of the prison life she endures.
The four girls grow up on their father's farm in Ojo de Agua, and generally they live a sheltered life until they are sent away to school. Minerva then becomes known as a troublemaker. She has been taught to revere Trujillo, but she changes her mind when he seduces one of her classmates. Her friend Sinita also confides to her that Trujillo had her brother murdered, and Minerva now realizes that the one called the "protector" is really an enemy of the people. This politicizes her as she begins reading political tracts and attending secret meetings. Maria has to lie and soon finds herself lying to protect Minerva and also buries Minerva's diary to protect her.
In the meantime, Patria, who has wanted to be a nun, abandons that goal and gets married. Ded? returns to Ojo de Agua, and after Enrique Mirabal refuses to allow Minerva to continue her studies
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