A beautiful, intelligent and flirtatious young girl, Yonta, is secretly in love with a friend of her parents, Vicente, a hero of the war of independence. Vicente is unaware of her passion as she is of the love of a young man who sends her anonymous love letters.

Xime-Portuguese Guinea-1962: The rice peasant IALA is confronted with losing the authority over his two sons, Raul and Bedan. Raul, the elder son, through the help of Vittorio, the Italian priest from the little village school, had been sent to the seminary in the big city. No one knows that he has, in fact, joined the liberation movement against the Portuguese colonial regime. Bedan, the younger son, remaining behind the village, is in opposition to the traditional authority of the village elders. Moreover, he is secretly in love wi th his father's young bride to be! The colonial authorities are also in turmoil. When Raul returns to the village, events escalate. In the end, they rapidly lead to the violence which forces everyone to make a choice.