However, Chronicle of a Death Foretold is, above all, a precise and effective piece of watchmaking. The events surrounding the death of Santiago Nasar at dawn the day after Bayardo San Roman's failed marriage to Angela Vicario are reconstructed one by one by the narrator, who each time adds the necessary information through the testimonies of the protagonists to build the wall evenly, to keep the reader's curiosity alive, and to create an ambitious narrative core nourished by polyphony. From the voices of all those who years later remember, confess, or conceal some new detail of the crime, some nuance that completes the tragedy. Because, ultimately, Chronicle of a Death Foretold is also a modern tragedy. The characters are driven to action by forces beyond their control.

The Vicario brothers, the murderers, are forced to follow their fate, which is to restore their sister's honor by killing Santiago Nasar. However, neither of them wants to do it, and as the narrator says, "they did much more than anyone could imagine to prevent someone from stopping them from killing him, and they failed." Colonel Aponte, the mayor, warned by the voices, disarms them. In vain, since it is very early and the brothers have time to reluctantly replace their knives.