The novel consists of twelve chapters and an epilogue. Each unit shares a similar structure and is evenly balanced in the treatment of characters, actions, and themes. The montage techniques at which Puig has excelled in other novels is discarded here in favor of a more subtle, and confounding, structure. Without clear warning to the reader or markers of any sort, juxtapositions appear within each chapter, created by the three, not always distinct, principal voices of the story.

Josemar is the main discursive subject of the novel and dominates the book; the second main voice belongs to an anonymous third person narrator, and the third belongs to Josemar's discursive partner.

The third person narrator fills in highly subjective and critical "factual" details about Josemar but does not display either omniscience or control.

In fact, this voice sounds much like Josemar's; the narrator is full of doubt and often...