Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussions of alcohol addiction, anti-gay bias, murder, graphic violence, and xenophobia.

Harrison William Shepherd is a 13-year-old boy who lives in a mansion on the (fictional) isolated island of Isla Pixol in the Gulf of Mexico with his mother, Salomé. They were brought there by his mother’s lover, an oil industrialist named Enrique. Harrison was born in Virginia, in the United States, and the other boys on the island tease him. He does not attend school. Instead, he spends his days reading novels like The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie and The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas, writing in his notebooks, and exploring the ocean wearing a pair of goggles the estate’s chef, Leandro, gave him.

Shepherd is a lonely boy. His mother is preoccupied with keeping Enrique happy and drinking. His father lives in Washington, DC, and they have no contact. Shepherd spends many days learning how to cook delicacies like pan dulce with Leandro, who is the only person who shows him any kindness. In 1929, following events in the Cristero War between secular and clerical forces, the Catholic Church was reinstated in Mexico, and Salomé reluctantly takes Shepherd to Mass, even though she calls it “opium of the masses” (30).