Plot Summary

Baltasar, a young man in his twenties, is sent by his father to live with his aunt Dolores, an elderly widow and childless widow, on the Las Pataguas farm. There he meets his neighbors, the Araneda family, owners of the El Pantano farm and parents of the beautiful Humilde, with whom Balthazar falls in love. But the girl is "bewitched" by Saúl Araneda, her seductive cousin, whom the locals consider dangerously jealous.