A collection of twenty-one short stories built around the idea of the man who is not present in his family, which is thereby reduced to a sinister gynaeceum. Written between 1975 and 1982, these texts show a portrait of an always despondent and conflictive Argentine society in which men and women search fruitlessly for an intimate balance. Beloved, yearned for, desired, despised, or maligned –through the eyes of a girl, of a vengeful widow, of a spurned woman, of a son visited by memories, and many other points of view as well– the elusive masculine figure is the absolute protagonist of these stories.