Gesualdo Bonocompagni, a young Sicilian doctor, based in the Court of Carlos II, is sent by the Marquis de Esquilache to the north of Spain to spread knowledge of a new surgical practice: caesarean section on dead pregnant women to avoid that their children are buried alive inside them.
He is accompanied in his journey through the valleys near the Estate of Biscay by an old surgeon, León de Bores, a man impervious to the new spirit of Rationalism. The two are faced with a series of mysterious murders which the locals believe to be the work of a monstrous creature. Through Bonocampagni's narrative, this thriller offers a disturbing plot, incredible landscapes, surprising characters. The Doctor from Esquilache is a portrait of the fragility of the human condition and an original recreation on the Age of Enlightenment.