Early 20th Century rural Sardinia described in the book is still nowadays a combination of an apparently static society, related to millenary customs, and a land striding towards a both industrial and technological progress.

The only rebel to their condition is Lia, Don Zame's third child, who flees to the Italian peninsula against her father's rule, reaching Civitavecchia.

"A shade of death encumbered the house: no comparable scandal had ever risen before; it had never happened that such a noble and polite maiden like Lia had run away like that".

The narration begins years later, when the no longer young Pintor ladies (Ruth, Ester and Noemi) live in a by then crumbling house and are still the owners of a small estate, barely sufficient to their maintenance.

Their existences pass in a mournful sadness that is overthrowing their pride and amour propre, sometimes seen in Noemi's behavior but very seldom in her elder sisters', who are worn out because of misery.

Their servant Efix (from Ephysius, the name of the patron saint of Cagliari) is attached to them by a strong guilt trip (in effect, he had killed Don Zame to help Lia, for whom he had a feeling really similar to love).