 His trilogy The Days Before tells of the prewar civil environment through three novels set in the country, the mines, and the sea.It opens with The Plain (1947), the story of a family entrenched in La Mancha, in fact in a pueblo, “Las Encinas”, likely an imitation of the Spanish municipality Viso del Marqués.The mother, Gabriela, defends the family after the father is murdered by the local overlords, until her youngest son relieves her.