Doctor Justo Pastor Proceso López should be a happy man—he has a family, a thriving medical practice, and adoring patients—but he lives a troubled life. He is married to a beautiful woman, but she despises him, and thanks to her influence he is unable to win favor with his two daughters.

In his growing despair, López becomes obsessed with exposing the myth of national hero Simón Bolívar—El Libertador, "The Liberator"—for what it truly is: a lie covering up years of massacres, betrayals, and sex scandals. But in interviewing elder locals about their memories of Bolívar he discovers that in Pasto, Colombia, the myth of Bolívar holds a tight grip on the identity of the city.
To put an end the cult of El Libertador, López devises an elaborate stunt involving a carnival float on the day of The Black and White Carnival, celebrating the Feast of the Holy Innocents. In the feverish atmosphere of the Feast celebrations, Doctor López watches his life come undone before his eyes.
From one of Colombia's foremost literary talents, Feast of the Innocents is both heartbreaking and triumphant, a literary portrait of obsession, alienation, and cultural identity in 1960s Colombia.