A young and inexperienced priest arrives to an old and aristocratic house which is in clear falling in pieces. He strongly feels that the state of the house is the consequence of the moral decay of its owner who is a good for nothing, solely interested in hunting activities and who had a bastard son with the maid of the house.

The priest believes that the sacrament of matrimony, will render the fruits upon Señor de Ulloa soul and sets hmself the goal of finding him a bride suitable for such high designations. The Marquis due to quite distorted reasoning ends up choosing a cousin who is not very attractive and a little weak istead of the one he was really attracted to.

The aims of the priest clash head to head wih the long term plans of Primitivo a sort of family housekeeper with a self appointed position who have been stealing the proceeds of the hacienda's and is waiting for the proper moment to take full control of the Marquis de Ulloa's land properties. At that moment will become due when Spain is shaken by liberal movements and the novelty of the democratic process.

The role of women on this novel shall not go unnoticed, since both the maid and the aristocratic lady of the house are also a reflection of the era which is gaining momentum Spain and it is reflected on the health of both ladies and in which the Spaniars were simultaneously spectators and protagonists as well as in the sexual preferences of the Marquis de Ulloa.

Emilia Pardo Bazán stands as perhaps the Spanish speaking world's greatest woman novelist. Along with Galdos and Clarín she was one of the three most important writers of late 19th century Spain. An intellectual of astounding breadth, she was the leading exponent of the Naturalist literary school in her country, -- as attested by her numerous theoretical wrtitings on the subject -- and was an outspoken feminist. She also wrote the first review of Darwin's _Origin of the Species_ to appear in print in Spain.

_The House of Ulloa_ is the work of fiction for which she is best known, and is also the work which perhaps best illustrates Pardo Bazán's own peculiar and unorthodox conception of Naturalism. A primitive and violent rural countryside provides the setting for the novel. When Julian, a cultured and somewhat effeminate priest arrives at the house of the Marquis of Ulloa, he discovers a brutish place which is physically falling prey to creeping nature. Weeds and plants have encroached on the property and whole sections of the once magnificent manor have fallen into disrepair. Julian attempts to "save" the Marquis by marrying him to a city dwelling cousin. The plan, however, does not sit well with Primitivo, the Marquis' ruthless and violent butler. Primitivo excercises a defacto control over the Marquis' property and finances, and is alarmed by the intrusion of the new inhabitants. His opposition is heightened by the fact that the Marquis has borne an illegitimate child of Primitivo's daughter and the new arrivals threaten his grandson's eventiual claims to inheritance. Thus the stage is set for a powerful and cruel denouement.