Gaspar Ruiz was a Chilean peasant who without his consent was recruited as a soldier by the independence army. The realists capture him during a combat and incorporate him to his troops. At the beginning of the story Ruiz had been taken prisoner by the patriot army and was near Valparaiso. There was a shooting by a traitor and Santierra, who in that type with the rank of lieutenant, tries to save his life to reincorporate the army but failed to improve his conditions of confinement while waiting for the sentence to be fulfilled.