The film is loosely based on the 1974 novel Los Andes no creen en Dios by Adolfo Costa du Rels and two short stories by the same author, La Misk'isimi (Sweet Lips in Quechua) and Plata del diablo (The Devil's Silver).

[1] The film is set in the late 1920s in the small and remote mining town of Uyuni in the highlands of Bolivia, lying between a vast salt desert and towering mountains.

The hero is Alfonso Claros, a young writer who has been educated in France and who arrives in Uyuni seeking to make his fortune in mining.

Returning to Uyuni, Alfonso finds that Claudina and Clota have aroused the intolerance of the priest and the local women, who have embarked on a campaign against them.

Over $500,000 was spent on production, a large amount for Bolivia, caused in part by the number of locations and the historical sets with period cars and steam locomotives.