Valencia was covered with snow that winter of 1956. Chirbes was six or seven years old, his father had died in a road accident and the family celebrated a birthday. The author is a child who half understands the world of adults and listens to how references to civil war arise and tension seizes the environment. His life is about to change by the appearance of who will be his stepfather, and the reason hes going to live with his mother far away. That party - the child does not know it - is a farewell, and also hides a secret.