During the colonial period, a man buys a small piece of land in Mendoza and marries a slave woman. The dry and arid climate harms the yield of the land from it. In need of money to buy the freedom of his spouse, he decides to undertake the task of building with his own hands a kilometric ditch that carries water from the river to his fields.
An improvised sheriff and his assistant restore order in a rural town.
Widow meets her husband's family for the first time after his death; her mother-in-law hates her and her husband's son from earlier marriage falls in love with her.
