In The Green House, which spans about forty years, Vargas Llosa depicts Peru's social conditions in two settings, the jungle environment at Santa Maria de Nieva which features a mission and military outpost along the upper Maranon river in the Amazon jungle, and Piura, a provincial town in northwestern Peru. By juxtaposing several story lines, he is able to focus simultaneously on several social concerns.

The tragic results of efforts to Christianize the Indian are exemplified by the plight of young Aguaruna Indian girls who are abducted by a group of Spanish nuns (with the help of soldiers stationed at Santa Maria de Nieva) for the purpose of training them at their jungle mission. Uprooted from their culture and thrust into an alien world that never accepts them because of their racial origins, the girls end up in prostitution or servitude. The torture and exploitation of...