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.
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.