Ricla, a village in Aragon, Spain, 1898. The imminent wedding between Jesús and Pilar, two young lovers, is frustrated when he is drafted to go to the war in Cuba.

Region of Castilla La Vieja, Spain, early 20th century. In Luján, a village ravaged by drought, Juan, a humble farmer who survives with his wife and son, confronts a local loan shark and is imprisoned as a result.

The little orphan Lazarus is expelled from his home, flees from the master who takes him in and mistreats him, and arrives in a village that is in dispute with another neighboring village over the possession of a Virgin.

All men who fall in love with Marichu die violently.