Later

An unforgettable fable of collective violence. In a lost village in South America, the peasants' evil hour has arrived, the hour of misfortune. One morning, as Father Ángel prepares to celebrate mass, a shot is heard in the village. A cattle merchant, informed of his wife's infidelity by a note stuck to his door, has just killed her presumed lover. It is one of the anonymous posters plastered on people's doors during the night, which are not political pamphlets but merely denunciations of citizens' private lives, revealing nothing that has not been known to everyone for some time. These are the old rumours that are now made public: love and political betrayals, murders, family secrets involving illegitimate children and sordid romances. Everyone feels affected and threatened, from the most eminent citizens to the most humble. Everyone seems to have something to hide and to reveal. Any inhabitant could be the author of the notes or the next victim.
This novel was adapted for cinema by the Brazilian director Ruy Guerra.