Follows pure and pious Father Julian Alvarez, who is sent to a remote country estate to put the affairs of the marquis, an irresponsible libertine, in order. When he discovers moral decadence, cruelty and corruption at his new home, Julian's well-meaning but ineffectual attempts to prevent the fall of the House of Ulloa end in tragedy. “An absolutely first-rate novelist . . . Bazán’s genius lies in the way she mixes comedy, farce, realism and heightened-pitch hysteria with a dash of gothic. . . . People may travel by donkey in this book, but it could have been written yesterday.” —The Guardian