Manuel, the hero of this novel, is a sensitive, Catholic, Republican small town boy… and he is a homosexual. Through his diaries the reader begins to understand his personal, emotional, existential and spiritual development. With exquisite elegance and an accessible style, Carmen Frías recounts, in diary format, the vicissitudes of Manuel, who, after years of studying in the capital, returns home to his childhood, his memories, his uncommunicative step-family, his friends and his most personal beliefs, and, with the advent of the new Republic in April 1931, comes straight up against the first cries of joy, the confrontations with a reactionary priest, in disagreement with the new lay, anti-clerical regime, the fear of losing ancestral privileges, the growing ideological anger, the new laws and how they affect the micro-history of the region.