Thus Bad Begins

As a young man, Juan de Vere takes a job that will haunt him for the rest of his life. His employer is sophisticated film mogul Eduardo Muriel. Through him Juan meets Muriel's wife, Beatriz, a highly sensual woman utterly neglected by her husband. And then there's Dr Jorge Van Vechten, an old family friend with a shadowy past. But what role will Juan play in this unhappy home? What connects Beatriz and Van Vechten? And what happened in the chaotic years after the war? As Juan learns more about his employers, his own innocence quickly falls away. He starts out as a mere observer but soon finds himself unable to stand on the side lines, compelled to interfere ever more dangerously in the dark interior of other people's lives.