Mexico

American journalist Norman Clay returns to the fictional city of Toledo to report on a three-day bullfighting festival dominated by two rival matadors. One represents aristocratic Spanish tradition and technical elegance; the other rises from Indigenous poverty and fights with raw courage. Their confrontation forces Clay to reconsider the divided heritage he has inherited through his Mexican mother and American father.

As the festival unfolds, the novel moves through Clay's family history and the history of the region, from pre-Columbian civilisation and Spanish conquest to mining, religious authority and revolution. Bullfighting becomes a lens through which the characters debate violence, artistry, class and national identity in a country formed by conquest and cultural mixture.