It consists of a series of vignettes that draw on Campobello's memories of her childhood and adolescence (and the stories her mother told her) in Northern Mexico during the war.

Collectively, however, they provide a sense of everyday life during the revolution and tell the stories of various "Villistas" (followers of revolutionary leader Pancho Villa) from the perspective of a young girl.

"[8] Although set in Chihuahua (more specifically, in and around Campobello's childhood hometown of Hidalgo del Parral) in 1916–1920, which was one of the bloodiest places and periods of a revolution that by this stage had degenerated into factionalized struggles between revolutionary groups, the descriptions of the atrocities committed during this time are often very poetic.

"[9] Max Parra notes that this poetic style incorporates many elements of Mexican oral culture and "an acute sense of rhythm and an appreciation for the materiality of language.

"[10] Poniatowska observes that the cumulative effect is that the book's narrator describes the violence "with the delicious freshness of someone watching a great show with neither nostalgia for the past nor plans for the future.

"[14] On its initial publication, the book was somewhat overlooked, in part because Campobello was marginalized as a Villista at a time when most of the literature and films of the Revolution were openly against Pancho Villa.

Still, Max Parra argues that critical reception was favourable among "the small world of Mexico City's intellectual community" and quotes the 1935 assessment of Berta Gamboa de Camino, who described the book as "alive and real, breathing, full of human feeling and deep pathos.

As Maricruz Castro Ricalde points out, this "helped establish the idea that women either were not interested in a topic that was alien to their sensibilities or were unable to produce any texts worthy of being remembered.