The Sex of Angels

The exact circumstances of Marco's shooting remain ambiguous because the LSD trip erased everyone's memory of the event. The only clue is that a bullet was found embedded in his chest the morning after, suggesting he was shot during the drug-induced night but no one witnessed or remembers how it happened.

When Marco weakened from his wound, Carla urged returning quickly to Italy for hospital care, but Nancy and Nora refused because they feared being blamed and arrested for Marco's shooting. Their fear of legal consequences led them to actively slow the journey home, indirectly causing his death.

Earlier, when the yacht faced inspection in Croatian waters, Marco had no passport or clothes, making him effectively undocumented and placing the women in a legally vulnerable position.

Nancy deliberately did not turn on the microphone, making the tape blank. She hid the tape from the others because she feared that whatever was recorded during their LSD trip would divide them permanently. Her decision to withhold the truth suggests she wanted to preserve their friendship, though it also prevented the group from understanding what happened to Marco.

Carla drowned herself after returning home because the experience shattered the fragile bond she shared with Nora and Nancy. The guilt of what happened to Marco, combined with the realization that her friends were willing to let him die and then cover it up, broke her psychologically. She walked to the end of a pier and drowned herself.

Carla's earlier willingness to offer her virginity for morphine showed her compassionate side and desperate attempt to save Marco, contrasting sharply with the other women's indifference.

The LSD trip remains a mystery because none of the women remember anything from that night, and Marco was too weakened by his wound to explain. The only evidence is that Marco was shot sometime during the drug experience, though who fired the shot and why remains unexplained.

The women specifically planned to tape their LSD trip because they knew they might not remember the details, which foreshadows the central problem of the missing narrative.

When the druggist refused to sell morphine without a prescription and rejected Nora and Nancy's offer of sex, Carla volunteered as a virgin to secure the drug for Marco. This desperate act demonstrated her willingness to sacrifice herself to save him, contrasting with her friends' more pragmatic refusal to help.

Carla's lesbian identity earlier made her lack of sexual motivation clear, making her offer even more selfless and purely driven by compassion for Marco's worsening condition.

Nora claimed she was saving her virtue for a black man as a way to deflect Marco's advances without revealing her true intentions. This line, along with the women's various excuses (Nancy being lesbian or frigid, Carla being clearly uninterested), was part of their collective effort to manipulate Marco while keeping him confused about their actual motives.

The women's deception about their intentions foreshadows the larger deception surrounding the LSD plan and Marco's shooting.

The women needed a man for their trip but Nora's boyfriend refused to join. They met Marco at a club and, despite him having a casual girlfriend, persuaded him to meet Nancy for a swim. Once he was in the water, they took him onto the yacht and set sail, effectively abducting him since he had no passport, clothes, or way to leave.

The women's primary intention for the trip was to experiment with LSD together. They brought the drug specifically for this purpose and included Marco in their plan without his knowledge or consent. This reveals the predatory nature of their invitation, as they drugged an unsuspecting person alongside themselves.

After Marco died, the women placed his body in an inflatable dinghy and set it adrift before docking. This was an attempt to dispose of the evidence and avoid being connected to his death. They then returned home putting on a brave face, maintaining their facade of composure while concealing their crime.