Sophie Caco Timeline and Summary

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• We meet Sophie when she is 12-years-old, living in Croix-des-Rosets, Haiti with her Tante (auntie) Atie. Her mother lives in New York and Sophie has not met her.
• At a neighborhood potluck, Sophie learns that her mother's sent for her to come to New York. She is not happy.
• Sophie visits her Grandmè Ifé before leaving Haiti. She doesn't really want to go to her mother.
• On their way to the airport in Port-au-Prince, Sophie and Atie witness violence beside the road. There is political upheaval.
• Sophie meets her mother in New York and quickly realizes that mom has problems. Her mother's violent nightmares keep her up all night.
• She meets Marc, her mother's boyfriend, and is introduced to the Haitian-American community in Brooklyn. Sophie knows she's expected to succeed in America.
• When Sophie's eighteen, she falls in love with their neighbor, Joseph. He's much older and is African-American. Martine does not approve: she wants her daughter to date a nice Haitian boy.
• She reflects on her life growing up as an immigrant. It's mostly lonely and isolating.
• Sophie and Joseph begin to date on the sly, when her mother's at work. She tells her mother that she likes a Haitian boy called Henry.
• Joseph asks Sophie to marry him, but she hesitates. She has to figure out how to work around her mother.
• But Martine has figured out that Henry isn't real, and that Sophie's been "running around" with Joseph. She begins testing Sophie's virginity.
• Sophie withdraws from Joseph and finally injures herself with a pestle to break her hymen, so that her mother won't test her anymore.
• Martine tells her to leave, so Sophie goes to Joseph and they marry.
• Several years later, Sophie is on her way to Haiti with her new baby daughter, Brigitte to visit her grandmother and aunt.
• We learn that Sophie and Martine have not spoken since Sophie left, despite her best efforts to contact her mother.
• Sophie stays at her grandmother's house and learns that Atie's changed since she was there—and not for the better.
• Sophie witnesses the ongoing violence of the Tonton Macoutes in the marketplace.
• We learn about Sophie's sexual difficulties in marriage, especially from the damage done by the pestle and her mother's virginity testing.
• Sophie learns that Atie is unhappy and unfulfilled, but her auntie is not interested in coming to America.
• She learns more about Martine's rape and what happened to her afterwards, how Sophie came to be in Croix-des-Rosets with Atie.
• She refuses to record a return message on a cassette that Martine has sent to Haiti, telling Ifé and Atie about Sophie's unexplained disappearance.
• Sophie cooks a special meal for her aunt and grandmother, and Ifé teaches her how to listen for things that most can't hear.
• Sophie explains about "doubling" and asks her grandmother why she tested her daughters' virginity. She decides it's time to go home.
• Her mother arrives and says that she is taking Sophie home. Sophie confronts Martine about several issues during their stay and trip home.
• Sophie learns that Martine is still with Marc, but that her mother's nightmares continue—and that Martine's pregnant. She is worried about Martine's health.
• She goes back to Providence to her husband and tries to patch things up with him.
• To help heal herself, Sophie attends a sexual phobia group with two other women.
• She also goes to therapy sessions led by a woman who is an initiated Santeria priestess. Sophie knows she has to confront her fears, but it's difficult.
• Sophie visits Martine in Brooklyn. She brings Joseph and Brigitte with her, and things go well.
• But soon her mother's mind is deteriorating. She has decided to have an abortion because she hears the baby speaking to her in a male voice.
• Sophie gets a call from Marc. He tells her that Martine has stabbed herself to death.
• She travels to Brooklyn to prepare her mother's body for burial in Haiti.
• Back in Haiti, she meets with Ifé and Atie, who are devastated by Martine's untimely death. They bury her mother.
• Sophie breaks down at the gravesite and runs to the cane fields, where her mother was raped. She beats at the cane until it breaks and uproots it.
• The confrontation takes a psychological load off her mind, and she's able to tell her grandmother that she is "free."