Through the tireless efforts of the protagonist, and her first-person witnessing narrative, the text explores how those who didn't experience important events, such as the Spanish Civil War, first-hand can, nevertheless, feel a connection to it that becomes entwined with their own identity. It explores how collective and individual memory is created, developed, and manipulated by the present through the efforts and work involved in deciphering the hidden meanings of the past. Ultimately it speaks of how the past is remembered and how that memory is transmitted to future generations through the creative engagement that those in the present have with the past (aka the very narrative that is being read). In other words, the novel captures the process each of us do, to differing levels, as we learn about who we are by examining those who came before us.