Justo has a wife and two children. His wife is semi-bedridden. He cannot find a job however hard he tries and his children, ten and twelve years old, know how to ?swipe? clothes, food, etc and beg for money by taking their mother along to raise sympathy. Four families, all of them as poor as each other, live in a village that is slowly dying since the by-pass was built and they have no longer have the little income from people stopping there. Justo?s secret hope is that his children will be able make the exploit that his wife?s illness stopped him from doing: to emigrate to Argentina, make money and return to a house and a market garden. But the children are ?enjoying being poor?. They love their freedom, they have never been to school and their misfortune, including their mother?s illness, does not seem so bad to them. This book describes how difficult life is in a dying village. Filled with humanity, it brings up face to face with the passing of time, poverty, the life?s various faces, the meaning of love?
