Juan knows little about his widowed father Ranz, a man with a troubled past. If he has been told no lies, that is because he has asked no questions. All he does know is that before marrying Juan s mother, Ranz was married to her elder sister and she had committed suicide. However the truth begins to be spelled out once Juan has been married to Luisa, who turns discreet confessor to the old man. What gradually emerges is a repetition of scenes Juan has already witnessed in his travels of a married man blackmailed by his mistress in a Havana hotel, of a woman in New York pursuing a sequence of lovers through the lonely-hearts columns. With remarkable skill and delicacy Javier Marias produces a startling picture of two generations and two marriages, and of the secret commerce between spouses that rests on the gossamer-thin threads of an unspoken accord.