Murder and treachery are the theme of Sinán's novel

Murder and treachery are the theme of Sinán's novel. Three people arrive to tell the narrator their tale. They are Don Céfaro, his granddaughter, Elena and a large man, whom the narrator refers to as a worker. We later learn that his real name is Miguel Camargo but has been nicknamed Mack Amargo (amargo is the Spanish for bitter) and is often known simply as El Amargo. The three of them tell their tale, often in disjointed fashion, arguing and disagreeing and interrupting one another but we learn that they have been involved in a crime but are not sure who is to blame for this crime.

Don Céfaro is of Portuguese origin. He got out of the country when he was young and went to Paris. He married but his wife died in childbirth. The child, a girl, survived. Don Céfaro moved to Panama to make his fortune and, indeed, does well out of drugs and prostitution, particularly in the Panama Canal Zone. When World War I breaks out, his daughter joins him in Panama. However, she marries a spoilt man from a well-to-do family that has fallen on hard times. Her first child dies at birth. Her second child is Elena. Don Céfaro is very attached to Elena and is very disappointed when the family goes off to Europe, as the daughter does not like Panama. Meanwhile, Don Céfaro becomes friendly with Crispín and brings him into the business. Things work out well as Don Céfaro trusts Crispín , but Crispín makes some poor investments using Don Céfaro's money leaving Don Céfaro short of funds. When his daughter and son-in-law want some money urgently to get a much-needed operation for Elena, Don Céfaro has to mortgage his villa. He is particularly upset when he later learns from Elena, who is now living in Antwerp, that the money was, in fact, for his son-in-law to pay off his gambling debts and not for an operation. The couple are learned to have Nazi sympathies and are killed while escaping.

Meanwhile we learn more about El Amargo. His mother was a cabaret dancer. He never knew who his father was. His mother later falls for a rich man and gets pregnant and has a daughter called Camila, to whom El Amargo is very attached. (We learn early on that she has died but we do not learn how or why till much later.) El Amargo is able to get a job on the Canal and then as a chauffeur and earns enough to support both his sister and mother, who is in poor health and cannot work any more. When Don Céfaro meets one of his former prostitutes by chance in a hospital, we learn that it is El Amargo's mother and in this way, the relationship between Don Céfaro and El Amargo is built, as El Amargo and his family live in a house owned by Don Céfaro but we also learn that Crispín has been cheating Don Céfaro.

Meanwhile World War II is approaching and Don Céfaro wants Elena to leave Antwerp and come to Panama. What he does not know is that she has fallen in love with a Dutch Communist Jewish sculptor and will not leave him.

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