In this novel an old man is telling a boy the same story he has told him hundreds of times before, so that now the boy can correct him on his errors, omissions, and embellishments. It is a lyric story of bittersweet memories and the enduring power of a love the old man has felt since his boyhood for Lucia Luna, a once beautiful girl, now a bitter old woman, destroyed by the jealousy and superstition of her village.