This story considers the evolving, somewhat troubled psyche of a Spanish boy as he grows up and approaches a personal conflict, turmoil that reflects the European or moral malaise of the
period. As a preteen boy he recognizes the realm of good and light, symbolized by his God-fearing parents and innocent younger sisters, as separate from the realm of evil and dark. Another
older boy rescues him from enemy’s clutches and fundamentally alters his notions of light and dark realms through an inverted interpretation of the parable of Cain and Abel.