At the centre of young Ismail's world is the unknowable figure of his mother. Naive and fragile as a paper doll, she is an unlikely presence in her husband's great stone house, with its hidden rooms and infamous dungeon, and is constantly at odds with her wise and thin-lipped mother-in-law.She is not without her own enigmas, and she fears that her intellectual son-- ho uses words she doesn't understand, publishes radical poetry, falls in love freely...

Set in a Brazilian town in 1910, two poor families continually feud over control of nearly barren land. One young man, encouraged by his younger brother, tries to seek peace and escape from the ancient feud.