Tu rostro mañana is best understood as a three-volume novel rather than three novels sutured together to form a trilogy. Published over a period of five years (2002–2007), it tells the story of Jaime Deza, who first appears as narrator and main character of Marías's 1989 novel Todas las almas and who narrates each of the three volumes of Rostro. Deza thus provides the “thread of continuity” in the narrative that Marías envisions as a critical part of lives and stories, an idea first asserted by the narrator of Mañana en la batalla piensa en mí and echoed by Deza here: “Yo soy el río, soy el río y por tanto un hilo de continuidad entre vivos y muertos al igual que los cuentos que nos hablan de noche …” (“I am the river, I am the river and, therefore, a connecting thread between the living and the dead, just like the stories that speak to us in the night …”).

To a large extent, Rostro is more culminant than innovative within Marías's body of writing. Indeed, many key aspects of the novel can be found in his previous fiction: he revisits in Rostro several characters first presented to a greater or lesser degree in earlier novels (e.g., Peter Wheeler, Esteban Custardoy, his father, Juan Deza); he inserts visual objects in the text, such as paintings, photographs, and posters, a strategy that has helped to shape other works (e.g., Negra espalda del tiempo; Miramientos; Vidas escritas); he elaborates on a range of ideas related to truth, knowledge, interpretation, violence, and ethics; he continues to follow the digressive style and technique for which he has long been known in his writing.