On the day he is to be killed, Santiago Nasar rises at 5:30 a.m., still haunted by two recent dreams of trees and a tinfoil airplane, which his mother Plácida Linero dismisses as harmless. He feels a headache and a metallic taste from the wedding revels, but appears sleepy yet in good spirits, commenting on the beautiful weather. He dresses in white linen—his ceremonial attire—rather than his usual khaki riding clothes, and removes the ammunition from his pistol, placing the bullets in a night‑table drawer as his mother explains he never leaves a loaded gun at home.

Plácida describes Santiago’s childhood lesson from a gun accident, notes his Arab eyelids, curly hair, and his inheritance of the family ranch The Divine Face. He is a skilled horseman, falconer, and marksman, keeping a .357 Magnum, a Mannlicher‑Schoenauer, a Holland & Holland, a .22 Hornet, and a Winchester repeater at home.

In the kitchen, cook Victoria Guzman is quartering rabbits while her daughter Divina Flor serves Santiago a mug of mountain coffee with cane liquor. He drinks slowly, taking aspirin, and grabs Victoria’s wrist, prompting a harsh rebuke. Their conversation reveals a past affair between Victoria and Ibrahim Nasar and hints at Divina’s youthful attraction to Santiago.

The house, a former river warehouse converted by Ibrahim Nasar, has a front door that leads out to the square; this is the entrance the Vicario twins use to await Santiago. Pedro and Pablo Vicario, twenty‑four, identical twins, sit in Clotilde Armenta’s milk shop, knives wrapped in newspapers, ready to fulfill their honor‑bound duty to kill Santiago. Clotilde sees Santiago emerge, describing his ghostly appearance in white linen, and briefly hesitates to awaken the twins.

Santiago leaves the house, crossing the square amid the roaring arrival of the bishop’s steamboat, which never docks. He walks with Cristo Bedoya, promising to visit Margot’s house within fifteen minutes. Townsfolk—including Colonel Don Lázaro Aponte, Father Carmen Amador, and the narrator’s sister Margot—are present at the docks, unaware of the imminent murder. The narrative also mentions Angela Vicario, whose brothers are the Vicario twins, and other background characters, building a dense picture of the town on the morning of Santiago’s death.