In 1919, demobbed, Gerald Brenan rents a house for a year in Yegen, a village in Alpujarra. He has little but a love of reading and writing. He's soon the center of attention from his maid, María, who has a marriageable daughter, Ángeles; from Paco, a man who decides to guide Gerald in the ways of the village and of love; from the town's priest, his landlady, her friend who loves St. Teresa, and, from Juliana, a teen beauty who's the daughter of a witch. Gerald must sort out his feelings and face down the machinations of the town's women, who map a future he doesn't want. What he wants is romance. How far from his class and country can he venture, and for how long?