Manuela Beltrán, a poet haunted by a troubled childhood, is bent on revenge for the wrongs she suffered at the hands of her mother's lover. Her vendetta will draw together a cast of enigmatic characters, the inhabitants of Gamboa's 'dark valley.' There is Tertullian, an Argentine who claims to be the Pope's son, ready to consort to extreme methods to create a harmonious society. There is Ferdinand Palacios, a Colombian priest with a dark paramilitary past now confronted with his guilt. Then there are Juana and 'the consul, ' united in a complex relationship based on desire, need, and pain. Finally, there's Arthur Rimbaud, the precocious, brilliant poet whose dramatic life story plays a central role in this kaleidoscopic tale.