The Vanishing Half: Chapter 1 Summary & Analysis

Lou LeBon rushes into the diner he owns in Mallard, Louisiana and informs the townspeople that Desiree Vignes has returned after many years. Everyone knows Desiree as one of the “lost twins” who suddenly disappeared at the age of 16. The people in the diner are scandalized by the mere sighting of Desiree after all this time, but what really shocks them is what Lou tells them next: Desiree was holding the hand of a young Black child—a little girl so dark, he says, that her skin looks “blueblack.” 

The townspeople in Lou’s Egg House gossip about why Desiree would have a young child with such dark skin. Nobody in Mallard ever marries dark-skinned people. It’s possible, the diners say, that Desiree decided to take in an orphan—but nobody really thinks of her as the type to do that. She and her twin, Stella, disappeared from Mallard on Founder’s Day 14 years ago. It was eventually discovered that they’d gone to live in New Orleans. Everyone thought they’d soon return, but Stella ran off again a year later, leaving Desiree behind. She started passing as a white woman, whereas Desiree continued to live as a light-skinned Black woman. 

The founder of Mallard, Alphonse Decuir, inherited the land from his father in 1848. His father was an enslaver; his mother was one of the people he enslaved. Alphonse was light skinned, but he knew white society would never fully accept him. Similarly, even his own mother resented him because his skin wasn’t dark like hers. Torn between two groups that wouldn’t accept him, he decided to found Mallard: a place for light-skinned Black people, where everyone would have lighter and lighter children over the generations. To him, the whiter his community became, the better it would be.

By the time Desiree and Stella Vignes—Alphonse Decuir’s great-great-great-granddaughters—were born, everyone in Mallard was so light-skinned that sometimes people visiting the town were confused; they thought Mallard was a Black town, so why weren’t there any Black people living there? Desiree didn’t like living in Mallard. It was too small and stifling. She constantly talked about leaving, but Stella never went along with the idea. She was more practical than Desiree and didn’t want to leave their mother behind; a group of racist white men murdered their father, despite his extremely light skin. So, to leave Mallard would be to abandon their mother. Instead of fantasizing about the wider world, then, Stella focused on her studies, dreaming of going to college someday. She even taught some of the younger classes at school.

On the final day of the twins’ sophomore year in high school, their mother, Adele, informed them that they wouldn’t be continuing their education. They’d learned enough, and now it was time for them to help her earn money. They started working with her the next day, cleaning a rich white family’s enormous house in the neighboring town of Opelousas. Stella was crushed, feeling her dreams of college slip away. As she cleaned the rich family’s house, Desiree often caught her staring off into space. 

That summer, Desiree realized that her and Stella’s only opportunity to have a better life would be to run away. On the morning of the Founder’s Day dance—when the entire town would be distracted—she told Stella that they had to go. Stella was hesitant, but Desiree knew she couldn’t go without her sister. They had never been apart from one another. To her surprise, though, Stella eventually agreed. They snuck out that night, making their way to New Orleans.

Fourteen years later, Desiree returns to Mallard. She tries to make her way to her mother’s house, but she can’t remember the route. All the while, she tries to comfort her daughter, Jude, who is tired of traveling and eager to reach their destination. Desiree is on the run from her abusive husband, Sam. Their relationship was full of love at first, but she soon learned about his horrific temper. By the time he fully revealed his violent ways, they’d already gotten married and had Jude. Just before Desiree decided to leave, Sam had grabbed her by the throat and pointed a gun in her face. Knowing he would eventually kill her if she stuck around, she knew she had to go.

It was the right choice to leave Sam, but Desiree is weary of how her mother will respond when she sees her. She worries that Adele will throw her out right away, chastising her for marrying a dark-skinned Black man—her mother will think she deserves what she got. Six months after Stella left her in New Orleans, Desiree moved to Washington, D.C., where she got a job reading fingerprints for the government. Even though it had been half a year since Stella left, Desiree still wasn’t used to living without her. She would often turn to say something to her twin before realizing that Stella wasn’t by her side.

Desiree met Sam at work and, at first, he was kind and loving. He soothed her when she worried about Stella, assuring her she’d come back. Later, though, he would insult her and accuse her of acting like Stella, insisting that she thought she was white and too good for a dark-skinned Black man like him.

When Desiree and Jude reach Adele’s house, Desiree faces her mother for the first time in years. She once called home after Stella left. She cried into the phone about her sister’s disappearance, but her mother simply said, “You did this.” Now, back at her childhood home, Desiree gets into a small argument with her mother, who is surprised to see that she has a daughter—who, she says, looks nothing like Desiree. But Desiree won’t let her mother speak poorly of her daughter, so she threatens to leave. Adele, however, simply notes that she has a right to be surprised. Desiree didn’t even invite her when she and Sam got married, but that’s just because Desiree knew her mother would insist that she was only marrying a dark-skinned man to enrage her.

Although Desiree hasn’t said anything about Sam, Adele knows why she has returned: to escape her abusive husband. But instead of gloating and suggesting that this outcome was inevitable, Adele tells Desiree not to worry: Sam is gone, so she should relax and eat the cornbread now sitting in front of her on the table in her childhood home.

Outside Mallard that night, a man named Early Jones accepts a job from a bounty hunter named Ceel. Early is a lone wolf who makes a living tracking down fugitives and collecting the reward. He himself has been to jail, and he doesn’t have many personal relationships—except for his working partnership with Ceel, who tells him the names and information of the people he should chase down. Now, though, Ceel offers him a different kind of job, one that involves tracking down a woman and her daughter. The woman’s husband, who wants to know where his wife went with their child, is the one who hired Ceel.

Ceel explains that the woman Early will be tracking is originally from Mallard. Early spent time in Mallard as a boy, but he felt unwelcome there because everyone treated him poorly on account of his dark skin. Still, he had a crush on a young girl named Desiree Vignes, which is why he’s shocked when Ceel shows him a picture of the person he’ll be tracking. Suddenly, he finds himself staring at what he thinks is Desiree’s face.