The setting of the film is the province of Galicia, circa, 1920, in the impoverished village of San Clemente. Since the Village has no priest, ecclesiastic authority falls to Pedro Gailo, the sacristan, who has a young beautiful wife Mari Gaila. Greedy for any money that comes their way and eager to leave San Clemente and her husband, Mari cares for a hydrocephalus-stricken child and uses him to beg for alms. The child becomes the source of their wealth.