This is considered one of the great workmanships of Jose Saramago, Nobel Price of Literature in 1998. One is about a fiction history where a series of supernatural events provokes a catastrophe that seemed impossible: the geographic separation of the Iberian Peninsula of the remaining portion of the Europe. The first crack appears in a great natural flagstone, Cerbére, in the border between France and Spain. The Peninsula is changedded thus into a raft of astray rock in the sea. First it seems to direct themselves for the Açores, but later change of route however more for north, however more for south, awake the interest of the United States and Canada depending on the direction that takes. When following the life and the constant go-come of four personages - Joana Carda, Joaquin Sassa, Jose Amaiço and Maria Guavaira - go also following the life alterations that suffer the consequentes populations of the Iberian Peninsula from this situation.