'Many years later s he faced the fring squad colonel aureliano buendia was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice'

Pipes and kettledrums herald arrival of gypsies on their annual visit to Macondo the newly founded village where Jose Arcadio Bundia and his strong-willed wife Ursula have started their new life. As the mysterious Melquiades excites Aureliano Buendia and his father with new inventions and tales of adventure neither can know the significance of the indecipherable manuscrip that the old gypsy passes into their hands.

Through plagues of insomnia civil war hauntings and vendettas the many tribulations of the Buendia house-hold push memories of the manuscript aside. Few remember its existence and only one will discover the hidden message that it holds...