Julio Robalo is a teacher and a poet, or rather a poet who has yet to begin to express himself. He lives in a district somewhere South of the border that is ruled by a dictator known only as "The Person in Charge," who has outlawed teaching, turned the local school into a beauty parlor, regularly "disappears" people, and has turned the local town into a village of informants. Set in a time of pandemic, this is also a love story: Julio is in love with Fatima Marie, who is married to another man. Written with Tewkesbury's characteristic wit and humor, this novel is a kind of fable for our times, both humorous and tragic, with stories of people who live under the horrors of fascism and yet persist to find love and meaning in a chaotic world.