A traveling theatre troupe tours the Greek countryside from 1939 to the early 1950s, staging “Golfo the Shepherdess”. As the years pass, its members endure persecution, betrayal, executions, and exile. Their personal stories become entangled with the country’s major historical events, in a seemingly endless cycle of violence and loss.

Anthoula has lost her mother and her father is swept away by his new love, Martha, and moves away from Anthoula to live in Aphrodite's house. Aphrodite pushes Anthoula into the arms of her son Thanos, with her sights set on her fortune. But Alekos, who truly loves Anthoula, will reveal the plot, and her father will leave Martha.