In Beatriz Bracher's Antonio-her third novel and her breakout book in Brazil-Benjamin, on the verge of becoming a father, discovers a tragic family secret involving patrimony and determines to find out how it happened. Those most immediately involved are all dead, but their three closest confidantes are still alive-his grandmother, Isabel, Haroldo, his grandfather's friend, and Raul, his father's friend-and each will tell him different versions of the facts. It is by collecting these shards of memories that Benjamin will piece together the painful puzzle of his family history. As with a Faulkner novel, putting together these three perspectives leads to contradictions as often as to the truth.