El principio

Mexico is in the midst of Revolution when the protagonist returns after studying in Paris to find his native town in Chihuahua occupied by Francisco Villas revolutionary forces He visits his deserted home and remembers people and events from his adolescence that provide glimpses of preRevolutionary society under dictatorship his uncle the chief of police his sisters involvement with a liberal political association bathing with the girls from a local brothel a labor strike that ended in a massacre Returning to the present he discovers that his father has been assassinated and in the company of his fathers former servant joins the revolutionary movement