Pampa–Terminal is a saltpetre mine located in the Atacama Desert, Northern Chile, as well as being a home for its workers, executives and a few families.

There is a chemist’s, a theatre for the workers, a bakery, a butcher, and a Chinese man who sells fireworks and balloons that catch fire in the air.

There are shops in the main shopping street. There are brothels in the brothel street. Everything is so simple in Pampa–Terminal.

There is also a hairdresser’s salon run by Alexandre Rivery – it is the place for union meetings. Alexander is an anarchist. In Pampa there are also guesthouses and taverns.

It is also exactly like this in all the other mines across the Atacama Desert, which also have their own cemeteries and brass bands, their corrupt cops as well as their honest men and women.

However, Pampa–Terminal is the town that the president has to pass through in order to declare the mine an "Official City". It will then be able to be marked on maps.

But above all, Pampa–Terminal is the fertile ground for the blossoming of the unique love story between Hirondelle Rivery del Rosario, a pianist for silent films, and Bello Sandalio, a jazz trumpeter.