 The play depicts the last few days of Spanish rule in a town in Luzon, before the "insurrectos" capture it.The curtain opens on a young mestiza, Elena, asking for and gaining the consent of her mother, Salvadora, to her planned elopement with and marriage to Marcial, an insurrecto and son of an insurrecto general.It is immediately clear that both women live in dread of the Spanish father, Ciriaco, the commander of the voluntarios (volunteers) of the town.