At 13, Varya is the eldest of the Gold children. Her siblings are Daniel (age 11), Klara (age nine), and Simon (age seven). The children live in New York on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Their parents are Jewish tailors, Saul and Gertie Gold. One day, Daniel hears his friends talking about a woman who can tell fortunes. She can predict “What’ll happen in your life—whether you’ll have a good one or a bad one” (4). She can also predict when a person will die. 

The siblings plan to go visit the fortune teller, and they ask around to find her address on Hester Street. Many people have heard of her, some asserting that she has revealed truths to them. The siblings bring their allowance as an “offering” (7). After finding the apartment, the siblings go in one at a time, starting with Klara and ending with Varya, whose perspective we follow. Varya enters an efficiency apartment and encounters the woman, whose name we later learn is Bruna. Bruna makes tea and examines Varya’s palm. The older woman says the Varya will die on January 21, 2044 and that “Everything is gonna come out okay for you, honey” (17).