A film set in the Basque region, beginning in the Carlist war of 1875 and ending during the Spanish Civil war of 1936. The film portrays how one single act of cowardice shapes the life of the next three generations of two families and fuels the intense rivalry which will span the next sixty-one years.
A work of Valle-Inclán, the story takes place in Galicia in the early twentieth century. To escape poverty, the wife of a sacristan uses a hydrocephalic child as a sideshow attraction. This causes a confrontation with her sister-in-law.
In 1909, the Rigau brothers are the owners of the most important textile factory in Feixes. When Francesc dies, Julià, a dark and ambitious ex-military man, takes over the steamer and confronts everyone to make uniforms for the Spanish army that is fighting the war in Morocco.
