During the dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo in the Dominican Republic, the four Mirabel sisters were freedom fighters and, eventually, martyrs. In Julia Alvarez's In the Time of the Butterflies, the sisters dedicate themselves to political resistance and activism, despite the mounting threats and retaliation on their families from the government. Ultimately, one sister is left to tell their story, and the novel switches perspectives to narrate their lives and allow them to tell their own stories.