Portugal, 1973. Mario, a former war fighter from Guinea, intends to return to his hometown. It brings with it a vague sense of guilt, in the death of two men - a soldier and a native - by alarm he gave during the night. In Lisbon, he finds Margarida - the widow of his dead companion - a woman who swings between madness and premeditated theatricality. Mario is looking for a deputy whose fifth in the north of the country, his family had worked - and he intends precisely to be given a job there .—José de Matos-Cruz, O Cais do Olhar, 1999, p.192