It's October 1960, in a seaside Argentinian city named Santa Fe, and The Mathematician-wealthy, elegant, educated, dressed from head to toe in white-is just back from a grand tour of Europe. He's on his way to drop off a press release about the trip to the papers when he runs into Angel Leto, a relative newcomer to Santa Fe who does some accounting, but who this morning has decided to wander the town rather than go to work. One day soon, The Mathematician will disappear into exile after his wife's assassination, and Leto will vanish into the guerrilla underground.