Set in an imagined Latin American country the novel's political themes parody the worst excesses of the Pinochet government of Chile, the collapse of democratic social order in Uruguay in the 1970s, and other dirty wars of the 1960s to 1980s in Southern and Central America.

It also revisits the former inhabitants of the small town of Chiriguaná, who newly founded the township of Cochadebajo de los Gatos in the previous book.

There is a clear parallel between this and the National Front regime of Colombia, which followed on from La Violencia and lasted from 1958 to 1974, in which the Liberal and Conservative parties governed jointly.

His excellency President Veracruz attempts to put an end to the country's soaring inflation through a series of foolishly unrealistic measures, and searches for spiritual enlightenment with his ex-prostitute wife through magical potions and alchemy.

De Bernières pays obvious homage to Latin American magic realism, in particular the comic awareness of life's transcendence which characterises the work of Gabriel García Márquez.