"On the day they were going to kill him Santiago Nasar got up at five-thirty in the morning to wait for the boat the bishop was coming on."

When newly-wed Angela Vicario and Bayardo San Roman are left to their wedding night Bayardo discovers that his new wife is no virgin. Disgusted he returns Angela to her family home that very night where her humiliated mother beats her savagely and her two brothers demand to know her violator whom she names as Santiago Nasar.

As he wakes to thoughts of the previous night's revelry Santiago is unaware of the slurs that have been cast against him. But with Angela's brothers set on avenging their family honour soon the whole town knows who they plan to kill where when and why.