Constructed on the basis of an apparently chaotic duality of time and space, Mario Vargas Llosa's novel The Time of the Hero could be assigned, as José Promis Ojeda correctly has done, to the "long literary tradition characterized by the presence of the 'enigma.';" Generally, the plot of the novel corresponds to the following episodes:

a) Theft of an exam at a military school (the
Leoncio Prado).
b) Collective punishment. Weekend leaves are suspended
for the cadets in the section in which the
robbery occurred until the thief or thieves should be discovered.
c) Denunciation of the thief by a cadet of his section
before the military authorities of the school.
d) The informer's violent death during military
maneuvers.
e) A new accusation of the presumed assassin by other
cadets before the same military authorities.
f) Pertinent investigation is begun.
g) The investigation is suspended...