Cuernavaca, Mexico, Day of the Dead. Geoffrey Firmin, former consul, former husband, alcoholic, and now ruined, spends his last day sinking deeper and deeper into mescal.
As the day drags on, it becomes apparent that he must die – it is the only escape from a world that does not understand him.
His story, the image of a painful ascent to Golgotha, became a prophetic book for an entire generation.