A quiet, unremarkable man is thrust into a life-or-death moral dilemma when he receives information about two people marked for disappearance by the military junta. Francisco Sanctis, a middle-aged office worker living in 1970s Argentina, must decide whether to remain safely detached from the state's terror or risk everything to warn the victims. The narrative follows his internal struggle as he navigates the claustrophobic, paranoid atmosphere of Buenos Aires under a dictatorship. The story unfolds through a tense, character-focused lens that emphasizes the weight of individual choice in an era of systemic violence.

This work is widely regarded as a significant contribution to the literature of the Argentine Dirty War, praised for its refusal to rely on sensationalism. Critics often highlight how Costantini captures the suffocating atmosphere of the era through the perspective of a character who is neither a hero nor a villain. The narrative is noted for its ability to transform a simple act of warning into a profound existential crisis. Readers frequently observe that the book serves as a chilling reminder of how easily ordinary citizens can be forced into complicity or resistance by a totalitarian state.