Plot summary Three cunning men unscrupulously seize a ranch called Napileste. The owner is killed, and the wife, Hager, and her children are left helpless at the mercy of events. She resists every impulse to work harder to get a living out of the bit of land that is given to her. When her son has been kidnapped, Hager resolves to fight back and restore what has unjustly been taken away from her. Having achieved her object, by keeping alive the spirit of resistance and fortitude, and stirring up people's minds and hearts, she experiences an inward indefinable feeling toward her children's teacher, but soon discovers that he is one of those men who have once dispossessed her of her land. Thinking of all that had passed since that August day on which the first usurper has arrived at the ranch, Hager makes her way to where her late husband lies at rest, and apologizes for not having visited him so often. She remains there till dawn, with her eyes moistening and looking on in the direction of the grave.