In ‘First Love’, two young people meet in a village in Galicia. The younger of the two plans to emigrate to Australia. He is full of plans and has a watch that tells the time in Tokyo, London and New York. The other is slightly older. She was in Barcelona, where things were pretty difficult. She has a daughter and invites the other in to meet her with a painful smile.

In ‘My Cousin, the Gigantic Robot’, the narrator has a cousin who is much older than him and is said to be a child his aunt had out of wedlock. The narrator is convinced this cousin, Dombodán, is a kind of robot that Time has turned into a human. When riding on his back in order to pick cherries, he tries pulling on his ears in order to see if some multi-coloured cables come out. When he discovers some high-voltage batteries in the dresser, he is convinced these must be used to power his cousin. Dombodán is not allowed to eat normal food, such as fried eggs or pork, and is given an oily liquid at the end of each meal, which the narrator believes must be to oil all his circuits. Dombodán never speaks, although apparently one day he managed to say ‘wee-wee’. And yet he is the one chosen by their grandfather, who is deaf, to listen to his stories. The narrator is surprised one night to see how his aunt undresses Dombodán in bed and, herself naked, begins to stroke him. In September, they return to the city and Dombodán is left. In ‘The Solitary Sailor’, there is a storm outside the Singapore bar. The barman argues in the kitchen and then smacks his child on the head for climbing on to the counter, where he has told a solitary sailor how brave he is and what nests he has raided. The barman switches on the television, which shows oriental peasants being chased by soldiers. The colour on the screen disappears until the barman lifts his child up to the television in order to repair it. When the football results come on, the barman tries to inform the sailor how he used to play football pretty well. He tries to speak to him using simple language, but the sailor appears not to understand. They watch news about an outdoor art exhibition and then about a shipwreck. One of the victims was a redhead identical to the sailor. The barman asks him if he is dead. The sailor nods, and the barman informs his son.

In ‘A Match with the Irishman’, the narrator is new to the sea and is confined to his bunk, where he dreams he is going to be attacked by a shark and takes comfort from a calendar with a picture of a cow. The fishing vessel has an English captain, five Irish crew and two Galicians, apart from the narrator. One of the Galicians is responsible for the radar and retires to his cabin to pray. Another Galician, the cook, explains that he prays because he’s a Protestant. The narrator shares his cabin with one of the Irishmen. They play a game of dice. The Galician loses everything he has. The Irishman suggests he bets the cow on the calendar and the Galician manages to win everything back. At this point, he is able to return to deck and help with the fishing. In ‘The Lame Horse’s Road’, the narrator takes a shortcut over the mountains next to Muros. Once, he was stopped by a herd of horses, which refused to move until a black stallion appeared from out of the pines and ordered them on. The stallion was lame. On the day of the story, the narrator’s car is behind a car with a foreign number-plate. They are being held back by a funeral procession. A member of the procession gets in the narrator’s car when it starts to rain and curses the local priest for refusing to bury the young man in the coffin because he committed suicide. They are taking him to the next parish. There, the priest initially doesn’t want to perform the funeral service either, but relents, although he accuses them all of living in sin. The narrator is appalled by the priest’s attitude, but the old man from before ignores his comments and tells him to carry on his way. He then limps off. In ‘One of Those Guys Who Come from Far Away’, Marga brings a new boyfriend to the party. The others are amazed. His name is Dombodán, he is huge and he rarely speaks. They leave the bar and go to the holiday home of the parents of one of them, Raúl. There, they drink champagne, smoke hashish and snort cocaine. When Dombodán falls asleep, they drop a pet snake on him and he wakes up with a scream. Raúl has some white mice, but, when one of them bites him, he shoots it with a revolver. He and Marga go to bed together. Dombodán doesn’t react and Rita confesses how she had an abortion. They go down to the beach for a game of Russian roulette. Dombodán is the last to take the revolver, but there was never a bullet in the chamber. Dombodán walks away from the group in disgust.