Cummins tells Noemí that she gave Catalina an opium tincture that could have killed her. But immediately after swallowing some, Catalina begins to seize. Noemí retrieves the tincture from Marta Duval and brings it to Catalina.
Noemí wakes up and realizes that she has been sleep walking-something she hasn’t done since she was a child. That night Noemí has a terrible nightmare: she sees Ruth walk through the hallway holding a rifle, find Howard’s bedroom, and shoot him. They go for walks, talk about each other’s lives, and Francis shows Noemi his collection of spore prints. Noemí and Francis begin to spend more time together. Besides, Catalina is his wife, and he’ll decide what’s best for her. Cummins, and he’s good enough to treat Catalina. The Doyle family has their own doctor, Dr. Noemí tells this to Virgil, but he’s dismissive of the local doctor. After his examination, he tells Noemí that he agrees with her-he doesn’t think Catalina has tuberculosis, and she should probably see a psychiatrist. Camarillo, to come to High Place and examine Catalina.
While in town Noemí convinces the local physician, Dr. Years ago Howard’s daughter, Ruth, went on a shooting spree in High Place and killed many of her family members, including her fiancé and mother. But the medicine won’t help, she tells Noemí, because the Doyle family is cursed. She meets Marta at her home, and the old woman tells her that it’ll take one week to prepare the tincture. Noemí agrees to help, and the next day she convinces Francis to drive her to town. The next time Noemí sees Catalina, she seems more lucid, and she secretly asks Noemí to visit a local healer named Marta Duval, who’s been making her a tincture. The English miners are all buried here, behind High Place. The Doyles own a silver mine-which isn’t in operation anymore-and many miners died from an epidemic decades ago. The next day, Francis gives Noemí a tour of the grounds, which ends at the English cemetery. Noemí tries to learn more about her cousin’s illness from Virgil Doyle, Catalina’s husband, but he isn’t very forthcoming. Howard believes in a pseudoscience known as eugenics, and he quizzes Noemí about it, much to her discomfort. Catalina tells Noemí that she was delirious with fever when she wrote the letter, so Noemí shouldn’t worry too much about it.Īt dinner that night Noemí meets the ancient-looking Howard Doyle. Surprisingly, Catalina doesn’t look that sick-even though she claims she has tuberculosis. Florence takes Noemí to Catalina’s bedroom. Noemí walks into the old, Victorian style home and meets a stern-looking woman named Florence Doyle, who explains that she runs High Place and that Noemí should make sure to follow the rules of the house. He takes Noemí to the Doyle estate, which everyone calls High Place. An automobile is waiting for her at the train station, and the English man driving it introduces himself as Francis Doyle, great nephew of Howard Doyle. When Noemí arrives in El Triunfo, she finds it to be a ramshackle town. Noemí agrees and leaves the next morning. If she does, he’ll finally let Noemí study anthropology in graduate school. Noemí’s father dismisses Catalina’s claims as melodramatic but nevertheless thinks Noemí should go visit her cousin in El Triunfo. Catalina claims that her husband’s family treats her cruelly, that she’s being kept as a prisoner, and that she has been seeing ghosts. She cuts her date short and returns home, where her father hands her a mysterious letter from Catalina, her cousin. Noemí Taboada receives a summons from her father while at a lavish costume party.