Cipriano Algor, an elderly potter, lives with his daughter Marta and her husband Mar‡al in a small village on the outskirts of The Center, an imposing complex of shops, apartment blocks, offices, and sensation zones. Mar‡al works there as a security guard, and Cipriano drives him to work each day before delivering his own humble pots and jugs. On one such visit, he is told not to make any more deliveries until further notice. People prefer plastic, he is told; it lasts longer and doesn't break. Unwilling to give up his craft, Cipriano tries his hand at making ceramic dolls. Astonishingly, The Center places an order for hundreds of figurines, and Cipriano and Marta set to work. In the meantime, Cipriano meets a young widow at the graves of their recently departed spouses, and a hesitant romance begins.

When Marta learns that she is pregnant and Mar‡al receives a promotion, they all move into an apartment in The Center. Soon they hear a mysterious sound of digging, and one night Mar‡al and Cipriano investigate. Horrified by the discovery, the family, which now includes the widow and a dog, sets off in a truck, heading for the great unknown. Suffused with the depth, humor, and above all the extraordinary sense of humanity that marks each of his novels, The Cave is sure to become an essential book of our time.