The book mainly focuses on the events happening in Jerez, which led to many labourers to be accused to belong to La Mano Negra, a secret society. The Black Hand (Spanish: La Mano Negra) was a presumed secret, anarchist organization based in the Andalusian region of Spain and best known as the perpetrators of murders, arson, and crop fires in the early 1880s. The events associated with the Black Hand took place in 1882 and 1883 amidst class struggle in the Andalusian countryside, the spread of anarcho-communism distinct from collectivist anarchism, and differences between legalists and insurrectionists in the Federación de Trabajadores de la Región Española.
