Osvaldo Bayer reconstructs the history of labor struggles in 1922 in Patagonia. Through strikes and occupations of large estates, workers attempted to resist brutal working conditions and inadequate pay. However, the Argentine military violently suppressed these struggles, moving from estate to estate and killing more than 1,500 workers—mostly after they had already surrendered. In January 1923, the officer responsible for the massacres was shot dead by the German anarchist Kurt Gustav Wilckens in Buenos Aires. The novel serves as the basis for the eponymous feature film, which won the Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival in 1974.