Sometimes they talk all night long. In the still darkness of their cell, Molina re-weaves the glittering and fragile stories of the film he loves, and the cynical Valentin listens. Valentin believes in the just cause which makes all suffering bearable; Molina believes in the magic of love which makes all else endurable. Each has always been alone, and always - especially now - in danger of betrayal. But in cell 7, each surrenders to the other something of himself that he has never surrendered before.

This graceful, intensely compelling novel about love and victimization takes place in an Argentine prison. Molina, a gay window dresser who is self-centered, self-denigrating, yet charming, and Valentin, an articulate, fiercely dogmatic revolutionary, are gradually transformed by their guarded but growing friendship and by Molina’s obsession with the fantasy and romance of the movies.