This extensive novel is intricately structured. Originally it was published in two volumes comprising 675 pages.

It is divided into four narrative units, each composed of unnumbered sequences presented from the point of view of one of the five narrators (Santiago, Bermudez, Amalia, Ambrosio, and Queta). The first part comprises ten sequences, the second has nine, the third has four, and the fourth has eight. In the second and fourth units each sequence is characterized by shifting point of view. For instance, in the first sequence in unit two (this is the most complex unit), point of view changes twelve times.

In addition to this intricate structure, the narrative features an omniscient narrator who functions as a camera eye describing objects and actions in a given setting. The telescoping of dialogues is also one of the dominant devices used to juxtapose time and space.

In this novel Vargas Llosa...