A couple, Maria and Pierre, their daughter and a friend are heading for Madrid, but a storm forces them to stop by in a small town. As soon as they arrive, they're told that a murderer named Rodrigo Paestra - a man that has killed his wife and her lover - is hiding somewhere nearby and the police are looking for him. Maria can't get the man out of her mind, and she develops a kind of contempt for the wife's lover, Toni Perez, while she's not judging Paestra. Eventually, as her own life is shattering before her eyes when her husband and friend find each other, she, in her drunken state, tries to understand and survive, through the story of the murderer. She seems to find a way to breathe through his revenge, and finally decides to help him.
The parallels between Maria and Paestra are obvious. Her determination to help him is an interesting way of describing her view of her own life. Similar experiences can awake a great deal of sympathy for someone you normally wouldn't understand. The concept is interesting, and the novel has received praise of immense proportions. It's subtle and reduced to the essence of the theme of smothering emotions of tearing sorrow, guilt, abandonment and despair. It also deals with the feeling of entrapment and the relative freedom - or imprisonment - of revenge. The things going on beneath the surface resemble Kafka's writing somewhat, but, still, something is missing to awake the outmost impression.
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