A young boy, Paolo, and the man who murdered his parents, Angel, gradually become like father and son as they live and work together on the remote Chilean farm where Paolo was born.

Throughout her childhood, Melie believes her mother is two people--Rosy Mother and Dark Mother--and she performs more and more rituals to keep Dark Mother away as she reaches adolescence, when she begins to realize that her mother is mentally ill and that Melie may be, as well.

"Portrait of two Muslim sisters, once closely bonded, but now on divergent paths as one embraces her religion and the other remains secular"--