Peasant girl Jagna is forced to marry the much older, wealthy farmer Boryna, despite her love for his son Antek. With time, Jagna becomes the object of envy and disdain with the villagers and she must fight to preserve her independence.

The story of a donkey Balthazar as he is passed from owner to owner, some kind and some cruel but all with motivations beyond his understanding. Balthazar, whose life parallels that of his first keeper, Marie, is truly a beast of burden, suffering the sins of humankind. But despite his powerlessness, he accepts his fate nobly.

The silent majority is the Costa Rican peasantry, which has been the object of traditional contempt and which has manifested itself in various forms: unfair salary compensation, bad prices for their agricultural products, financing difficulties, land grabs, precarious housing and educational conditions. health. Precariousness, peasant migrations and the depletion of the agricultural frontier are also analyzed in the film.

The orphanage's pupils are sent by the district Komsomol committee to eliminate illiteracy in the remote village of Penki.