A seemingly timeless festival is happening amidst a war that knows no end.

             This was the recurring image of this powerful novel by Ninotchka Rosca. Set in the Marcos era, a time of violence and turmoil, it displays the brutality and beauty of humanity in its cast of colorful characters scattered among the different timelines of Philippine history, from the period of Spanish rule to the American rule. .

             On the island of K, a party is brewing. A big festival is in progress, and people are coming in droves through a system of motorized boats from different parts of the country, and even out of the country to have their fill of fun and laughter. Crazy dancing, wild beer drinking, and deafening music simultaneously erupt in the once silent streets of the island. .

             A group of three friends arrive at an island, after much of a hassle of getting a boat to ferry them across. The three friends are Adrian Banyaga, Anna Villaverde, and Eliza Hansen. Adrian is the typical eligible bachelor of the metropolis: smart, handsome, and rich. Anna Villaverde is the silent thinker who has had a torturous brush with the intelligence unit of the military. Eliza Hansen is as beautiful as a woman can be, and has the brain to administer her assets well. .

             Along with the other tourists who had come to the island, they had wanted to forget about their ordinary lives for a while to just party and be merry. As they danced to the groove of the booming music, they fell deeper into the ravine of political and military activity surrounding the area. The man known as Gueverra has set up a plan to bomb the stage where the governor was set to have his speech. Colonel Amor has captured and drugged Adrian, while Eliza has plotted to kill him for what he has done to Anna.

             As the tension rises, the novel turns back in time. It turns back to the origins of the three friends, and how they are related to one another. It narrates mainly of the history of the Villaverdes starting from the union of a Spanish priest and the wife of his cook, until the death of Anna"s mom after giving her birth, with her father Carlos Luis out of the country.