In La colmena, Camilo José Cela places his characters in an environment of fragmentation and vigilance that reproduces the Franco regime’s desire for authoritarian control, bolstered by harsh laws that encouraged vigilance among its citizens. Though Cela once likened the workings of his novel to the intricate gears of a clock, one character, the wandering vagabond Martín Marco, threatens the integrity of the system by seemingly remaining outside it. Through a close reading of the geography of the novel and of the spaces in which Martín maneuvers, I explore the permeable boundary between private and public space and how this breakdown affects personal networks. Martín’s experience of space and place reveals that in the difficult postwar años del hambre, even fragmented spaces and gaps fall short of offering any type of refuge because they too form part of a disciplinary structure that has little tolerance for vagrant individuals.