A Chronicle of a Death Foretold is set in a small Columbian town. The book opens at the residence of Santiago Nasar, where Santiago has awoken early on the day of his own murder to see the pope stop at the town docks. The town is still reeling from a tremendous wedding party the night before as he walks to the docks, and now many have awoken to see the bishop visit. Although most of the townspeople know that Santiago will be murdered when he goes home later that morning, he is alerted too late and is unarmed and confused at the time of the murder. He is killed rather sloppily by two brothers, Pedro and Pablo Vicario.

Before the murder is actually described, however, the action moves to about a year earlier, when a mysterious new man, Bayardo San Román, enters the town, seemingly searching for a wife. The story follows the romance of Bayard San Román and Angela Vicario, a young woman who has just recently emerged from an adolescence of being tucked away . The wedding and ensuing party are soon described, as the events of the wedding and wedding night have a direct effect on the eventual murder of Santiago Nasar.

On thier wedding night, Bayardo San Román soon discovers that Angela Vicario is not a virgin, and this fact prompts Angela's new husband to take her back to her mother, Pura Vicario. When Angela must reveal the man responsible for the quick end of her marraige, she names Santiago, basically sealing his fate. At this point, Angela's two brothers, Pedro and Pablo Vicario, resolve to take action in defense of their sister's honor, sharpening pig carving knives and wandering the town, announcing to everyone that they intend to kill Santiago Nasar. A police colonel takes the weapons, but the brothers are not arrested and soon sharpen a new pair of knives and continue wandering through the town, waiting for their victim.

About an hour later, Santiago awakes. He leaves the house unknowing, because the cook and and her daughter dismiss a warning from a beggar woman about the murder. He goes to the docks, where the bishop passes by but does not stop, and then goes to his fiance Flora Miguel's house for breakfast. Because she is aware of the impending murder and the causes of this murder, Flora Miguel and Santiago Nasar have a fight. Santiago leaves her house after talking to her father, Nahir Miguel, who tells him about the murder. However, this leaves Santiago confused, and he leaves unarmed. On the street, he is greeted by shouts from all sides and even a warning, and he runs towards the front door of his house, which he expects to be open. He knocks on the door as the Vicario brothers close in, but Placida Linero, Santiago's mother, believes that he is inside, so she bolts the door. He is then helpless against his murderers, and they leave him almost disemboweled. He falls, but manages to stumble through the house next door and eventually return to his kitchen, where he falls for the last time.

Although the novel ends with the murder, quite a few events after the murder are described around the middle of the book. The story's narrator is a neighbor of Santiago's who takes an active part in the exploration of his murder, interviewing those involved many years after the event occured. He interviews Pedro and Pablo Vicario, who state they killed Santiago but are all the same innocent. Angela, who has written thousands of letters to Bayardo San Román until he finally returns to her, claims simply that Santiago was the one. Details are collected from several other sources, mostly Clotilde Armenta, the owner of a small shop, other minor characters, and notes from the trial which proclaimed the brothers innocent.

A Chronicle of a Death Foretold: Major Character Descriptions and Quotes

• Santiago Nasar: A seemingly innocent young man who is named the perpetrator in the loss of Angela Vicario's virginity. But Argenida Lanao, the oldest daughter, said that Santiago Nasar walked with his usual good bearing, measuring his steps well, and that his Saracen face with its dashing ringlets was handsomer than ever. As he passed the table he smiled at them and continued through the bedrooms to the rear door of the house.



• Narrator: An unnamed man with the curiosity to continue gathering facts about the murder of Santiago many years later. I tried to get the truth out of [Angela] myself when I visited her the second time, with all my arguments in order, but she barely lifted her eyes from the embroidery to knock them down. "Don't beat it to death, cousin," she told me. "He was the one."



• Bayardo San Román: At first, he was a mysterious man, but by the time he had married Angela he was well known and well liked. In the end, when he had gone away, leaving his wife of five hours, he was said to be one of the major victims of the events linked to the murder. Nobody knew what he'd come for. Someone who couldn't resist the timptation of asking him, a little before the wedding, recieved the answer: "I've been going from town to town looking for someone to marry."



• Angela Vicaro: A young woman who at the start of the novel was just ready to be married, but was quickly jilted by Bayardo San Román because she had already lost her virginity. She writes thousands of letters to him until they are reunited when they have both reached middle age. Angela Vicario was the prettiest of the four [sisters], and my mother said that she had been born like the great queens of history, with the umbilical cord wrapped around her neck. But she had a helpless air and a poverty of spirit that augured an uncertain future for her.



• Pedro Vicaro: One of the murderers, and the older yet less dominant of the two brothers, who made the initial decision to kill Santiago, but hesitated to sharpen the knives a second time and actually go through with it. He had a painful case of blennorrhea that made it difficult to urinate. Pablo Vicario found him hugging the tree when he came back with the knives. "He was in a cold sweat from the pain," he said to me, "and he tried to tell me to go on by myself because he was in no condition to kill anybody."



• Pablo Vicaro: The more dominant brother, who assumed command when the knives were taken away from them. There's no way out of this," [Pablo] told [Pedro]. "It's as if it had already happened."

• Flora Miguel: Santiago Nasar's fiancee, who is angered when she discovers the cause of Santiago's murder.



• Pura Vicario: Angela's mother, who beats her after discovering she has lost her virginity, then demands to know who the perpetrator was.



• Plácida Linero: Santiago Nasar's mother, who misinterprets a dream Santiago has on the morning of his murder as being a good omen.



• Clotide Armenta: The owner of a milk shop in the town who is always a good source of information, particularly about the murder.



• Cristo Bedoya: A close friend of Santiago Nasar, who is not aware of the murder until it is too late, as by then he cannot find Santiago to warn him.



• Maria Alejandrina Cervantes: The narrator's lover, with whom he spends the night with before Santiago is killed.



• Ibrahim Nasar: Santiago's father, who died suddenly about three years before the murder.



• Dr. Dionisio Iguarán: A doctor involved with the case who was appaled by the horroble autopsy performed on Santiago's body.



• Xius: The widower who's house was bought rather forcefully by Bayardo San Román because Angela liked it. He was heartbroken, and when things began to disappear from the house, he claimed that the spirit of his wife Yolanda was reclaiming them.



• Victoria Guzman: The cook who does not warn Santiago after she has been told of his impending murder by a beggar woman. Later she says she did not tell him because he was like his father, who had mistreated her.



• Divina Flor: Victoria Guzman's daughter, who does not tell Santiago of the murder because she truly does not believe the twins would go through with it.



• Margot: The narrator's sister.



• Luis Enrique: The narrator's brother.



• Father Carmen Amador: The local priest, who also believed that the murder would not really happen.



• Prudencia Cotes: Pablo Vicario's fiancee.



• Colonel Lázaro Aponte: The policeman who had taken the first set of knives away from the Vicario twins.



• Luisa Santiaga: The narrator's mother.



• Jamie Santiaga: The narrator's younger brother.



• Poncio Vicario: Angela's father.



• Alberta Simonds: Bayardo's mother, a mulatto.



• General Petronio San Román: Bayardo's father, a civil war hero well liked by almost everyone.

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