It is possible to summarize the meaning of Alberto Manguel’s essay with the author’s own words: «The reality of Cervantes’ world […] can only be faithfully portrayed through approximations and fragments, as a chronicle that alternately assumes and denies the point of view of a madman, or of someone whom society labels as mad».

A central idea of the Argentine-Canadian writer’s essay is that Don Quixote contains a vindication of Spain’s mestizo roots, the Spain of Moors and Jews, of Moors and converts. This idea is personified mainly in two figures and in one episode: the elusive Cide Hamette, to whom Cervantes attributes the authorship of the work, and Ricote’s denunciation of the infamous expulsion of his people.