In his memoirs of childhood and youth, written in several books accounting, accounts painter Manolo Millares ago with his family, friends and various characters belonging to a highly significant period of twentieth-century Spanish history (the Second Republic, the War Civil and postwar), all lived from the Canary Islands. Reading those books by his daughter Eva, his conversations with his father living siblings and his mother Elvireta interventions and various characters referred to in the reports try to rescue the roots of the deep sense of drama, almost tragic, of Thousands painting.

A son of the Marquise of Seven Almenas is robbed by a crook and deposited in Melchor's house, who sells dolls in the street. The administrator of the Marquise discover the whereabouts of the child and goes to pick him up, but Melchior gives him one of his children, thinking that will ensure the future. Over the years, Melchior, widower, enters as a steward in the house of the marquise where the alleged 'marquis' live splendidly.