Like Water for Chocolate

Tita is born in the kitchen amid onion fumes, establishes the family tradition that will trap her, and Pedro asks for her hand only to be redirected to Rosaura.

Tita prepares the wedding cake for Pedro and Rosaura's wedding, crying into the batter; the magical tears cause every wedding guest to feel overwhelming sorrow and nostalgic longing.

Pedro gives Tita a bouquet of roses; Tita incorporates them into a quail dish that fills all who eat it with overwhelming erotic desire. Gertrudis runs from the ranch, naked, with a revolutionary soldier.

Rosaura gives birth to Roberto. Tita nurses the baby when Rosaura cannot. The mole Tita prepares for the christening carries her grief at the denial of motherhood, making everyone weep. Pedro praises Tita's cooking openly; Mama Elena punishes her.

Pedro and Rosaura leave for San Antonio with baby Roberto. Tita retreats into herself. News arrives that Roberto has died. Tita breaks down completely and is sent to Dr. John Brown's home.

Tita recovers at Brown's home. Brown proposes marriage. Mama Elena is attacked by revolutionaries and injured, and Tita returns to the ranch to care for her.

Mama Elena dies. Pedro returns with Rosaura and their new daughter Esperanza. Tita finds letters proving Mama Elena had a secret forbidden love of her own — and that Gertrudis may be the product of that affair.

Gertrudis returns to the ranch as a general in the revolutionary army, with her soldier husband Juan. Her freedom becomes a mirror for Tita's captivity. Pedro and Tita begin their affair.

Mama Elena's ghost appears to Tita, condemning her for her affair with Pedro. Tita rejects the ghost's authority for the first time. Rosaura falls ill.

A photographer comes to the ranch. Pedro insists on taking a photograph with Tita. The heat of their proximity causes the image to overexpose. John Brown visits and Tita must consider her response to his proposal.

Rosaura approaches Tita with a proposal: continue the tradition with Esperanza, and in exchange Rosaura will not prevent Tita and Pedro from their relationship. Tita refuses the bargain over Esperanza but the arrangement becomes tacit.

Rosaura dies. Esperanza is allowed to marry John Brown's son Alex. At the wedding reception, Tita prepares chiles en nogada — the novel's most symbolically loaded dish — and that night Pedro and Tita finally consummate their love completely. The passion kills Pedro and then Tita, whose internal fire burns down the ranch. Only the cookbook survives.