Julio Valdivieso, a Mexican intellectual in Europe, returns to his country after a long absence. With the PRI defeated, Mexico is experiencing a peculiar transition. On his return, he faces a lost love, the legend of the poet Ram?n L?pez Velarde and an episode of the Cristero War. In a Mexico plagued by crime and corrupt politics, the novel is an ironic revision of myths and a vindication of poetry in the chaos of history.