The insurrection of 1869, when nearly three thousand men of La Bisbal rose up against the Spanish Crown, had two leading figures, the revolutionary Pere Caimó and the first Catalan woman trade unionist, Isabel Vilà.

On 6 October 1869, nearly three thousand armed men of the town of La Bisbal in the Empordà region of Catalonia rose up against the troops of the Kingdom of Spain in what was known as the Foc de la Bisbal (Fire of La Bisbal) a revolutionary insurrection that aimed to bring down the absolute monarchy and turn Spain into a federal republic. Leading the revolt was the parliamentarian and mayor Pere Caimó, the idealist son of anti-slavery emigres to the Americas who had been educated in the most advanced ideas of his time. He, his wife, Isabel Batalla, and the pioneering trade unionist Isabel Vilà are the main characters in this story of conflicts between despotism and idealism, and the privileges of overlords against values of progress and social justice, in this vibrant account of the eternal conflict between power and freedom.