This work investigates the psychological and physical endurance of Manuel Cortes, a Spanish socialist who lived in self-imposed confinement for three decades to evade execution by Francoist forces. Ronald Fraser, a noted oral historian, utilizes extensive, in-depth interviews with Cortes and his family to reconstruct the lived experience of the 'topo' or 'mole' phenomenon in post-Civil War Spain. The book presents a detailed account of the political climate in Andalusia and the personal cost of survival under a repressive regime.

Historians and scholars of the Spanish Civil War frequently cite this work as a foundational text for understanding the domestic reality of political repression in the mid-twentieth century. Readers often note the clinical yet evocative nature of Fraser's oral history methodology, which provides a rare window into the long-term psychological effects of forced isolation.