Ela is a promising, ambitious young civil servant who has just been named director of operations of CNI, the Spanish intelligence agency, a secret service post occupied by a woman for the first time in history. She is very attached to her grandfather, who has given her a series of tapes he recorded as his will. The recordings run right up to the 1970s and are a vivid portrait of Civil War-era Spain, populated by fascinating characters such as Kim Philby, the most famous double agent of all time, important Nazi leaders who settled in Spain, European royal families, children of war who had to go into exile in Russia after the conflict ended, princesses and parents. All these memories put her on the right track to uncover a political plot that began with the war over seventy years ago and whose consequences are still being felt today.