Upon returning from a slave-trading expedition, Antonio discovers that his wife has died in labor. Confined to a decaying property in the company of his aging mother-in-law and numerous slaves, he marries his wife s young niece, Beatriz. Forced to live on the isolated farmhouse in the Brazilian mountains, Beatriz faces physical and emotional unrest beyond her years in this poetic period piece. - Man returns home to fid that his wife died in labor.