Despite Cardinal Guzman's efforts, life flourishes in Cochadebajo, with its improbable population of ex-soldiers, former guerrillas, unfrocked priests, reformed (though by no means inactive) prostitutes, a contingent of puzzled conquistadors, and an army of prodigious cats who smell of beer and dream of chocolate. Celebrating the ancient spirits of the land, and given to stupendous fiestas, Cochadebajo is seen by the sadistic Cardinal, leader of the new crusade, as the epicenter of all heresies, and the two sides march toward a spectacular confrontation. The combatants include a scholarly bogus priest, a desperate and famished knight-errant, and the corpulent ghost of Thomas Aquinas, who takes a brawny and decisive hand in setting the record straight.

In this breathtakingly audacious story, where farce and tragedy cheerfully intertwine, Louis de Bernieres continues to expand the epic panorama first displayed in his highly acclaimed novels The War of Don Emmanuel's Nether Parts (winner of England's 1991 Commonwealth Writers Prize for the best first book [Eurasian region] and Senor Vivo and the Coca Lord (winner of the 1992 Commonwealth Writers Prize [Eurasian region]).