In this ingenious satire, Solita, the not quite ten-year-old daughter of refugees from Franco's Spain, is whisked from the urban ghetto of Galmeda to El Topaz, the lush hacienda of a wealthy eccentric, which her mother assures her will be paradise. But behind its beautiful façade, El Topaz is a quagmire of social subterfuge, from its politicking adults to its spiteful children, and Solita finds herself alone in a glittery world where "you couldn't trust anything. Or anybody. You had to navigate completely on your own."