A captain of Franco’s army, who, on the same day as the Victory, renounces the winning of the war; a young terrified poet who escapes with his pregnant friend, and lives a dizzying story of maturity and death in the short period of a few months; and a prisoner in Porlier prison who refuses to live a lie so that the executioner can be classified as an executioner. Finally, a lustful deacon who attempts to hide his lasciviousness behind the apostolic fascism that reclaims the purifying blood of the defeated. These are stories from the times of silence, when it was terrifying to think someone might know what you were thinking. Four stories, subtly linked together, told in the same language but with the distinctive styles of each of the narrators which gradually sketch an outline of the real protagonist of the story: defeat. Winner of the National Prize for Literature 2005, Critic’s Prize 2005, and the Setenil Prize 2004. / Un capitán del ejército de Franco que, el mismo día de la Victoria, renuncia a ganar la guerra; un niño poeta que huye asustado con su compañera niña embarazada y vive una historia vertiginosa de madurez y muerte en el breve plazo de unos meses; un preso en la cárcel de Porlier que se niega a vivir en la impostura para que el verdugo pueda ser calificado de verdugo; por último, un diácono rijoso que enmascara su lascivia tras el fascismo apostólico que reclama la sangre purificadora del vencido. Son historias de los tiempos del silencio, cuando daba miedo que alguien supiera que sabías. Cuatro historias, sutilmente engarzadas entre sí, contadas desde el mismo lenguaje pero con los estilos propios de narradores distintos que van perfilando la verdadera protagonista de esta narración: la derrota.