Seventeen years after abandoning his family, Alfonso (Haimer Leal) returns to the family farm to find his son Geraldo (Edison Raigosa) bedridden and dying while his ex-wife Alicia (Hilda Ruiz) and daughter-in-law Esperanza (Marleyda Soto) work in his place cutting sugar cane. Alicia wants nothing from Alfonso but to take care of Geraldo, watch her grandson Manuel (José Felipe Cárdenas) when he gets home from school, and take care of the housekeeping; however, Alfonso makes an effort to bond with his son and grandson and get the farm working again. As the burning of the cane fields gets closer to the farm and Geraldo's health worsens, Alfonso realizes that there is no future at the farm for his son, daughter-in-law, and grandson. He advises them to leave but he learns from Esperanza that Geraldo refuses to leave his embittered mother who insists on staying. It is never stated exactly why Alfonso has returned (even whether he was summoned), but his return forces each member of the family to face the reality of things with emotional honesty before it is too late.