A peasant boy, Balbino, tries to flee the repressive Galician society of the 30s and 40s by questioning, answering, and criticizing every aspect of social and religious restrictions.

    In this first and most popular of Usigli's "antihistorical trilogy," the author portrays the brief, disastrous reign of Maximilian I as emperor of Mexico, framed by scenes depicting his wife Carlota in her old age, after she had survived her husband by several decades in spite of having descended into madness.