The story takes place in a fictionalized, unnamed country "across the sea" governed by the crude, aging strongman dictator, General Tereso Arango. Tereso has one massive weakness: his inability to win over women. 

The plot centers around a grand costume ball hosted by the ambitious Duchess Gorina. Desperate to elevate her social status among the elite, she lures the dictator to her party by using the beautiful, young widow Countess Fausta Sanchez as bait, knowing Tereso is infatuated with her. Fausta, who is corrupt and promiscuous, agrees to the scheme to become the dictator's mistress purely to secure lucrative government contracts for her brother