Madrid 1939. Carlos Tejada Alonso y León is a Sergeant in the Guardia
Civil, a rank rare for a man not yet thirty, but Tejada is an unusual
recruit. The bitter civil war between the Nationalists and the
Republicans has interrupted his legal studies in Salamanca. Second son
of a conservative Southern family of landowners, he is an enthusiast for
the Catholic Franquista cause, a dedicated, and now triumphant,
Nationalist.
This war has drawn international attention. In a dress rehearsal for
World War II, fascists support the Nationalists, while communists have
come to the aid of the Republicans. Atrocities have devastated both
sides. It is at this moment, when the Republicans have surrendered, and
the Guardia Civil has begun to impose order in the ruins of Madrid, that
Tejada finds the body of his best friend, a hero of the siege of Toledo,
shot to death on a street named Amor de Dios. Naturally, a Red is
suspected. And it is easy for Tejada to assume that the woman caught
kneeling over the body is the killer. But when his doubts are aroused,
he cannot help seeking justice.