The archetypal Onetti hero, Medina is at different times of his life a (phoney) doctor, a painter and police chief. He lives in Lavanda, across the river from Santa Maria, a town he is not allowed to enter, and therefore wants to destroy. The wind speaks and Santa Maria is devoured in flames. This is the first novel written by Onetti in exile in Spain. In it he is coming to terms with exclusion from the Santa Marias of his childhood. A bitter lament, it ends in the destruction of the object of adoration.