 At the end of the 19th century, in a farmhouse in the countryside of northern Italy, lives Maria, a young peasant girl who is by nature, simple and pragmatic. The farming community she lives in is tied up in its own cultural traditions steeped in magic and superstition. A belief of the place wills that, when the father in a family dies, it is the male child s duty to close his eyes. This way, the son inherits his father s wisdom and prevents the father from being condemned to watch the world changes that he can t live in. Maria ingenuously, betrays this social convention and her act determines her fate: the people s gossip soon isolates her and becomes an obstacle to her simple wish to marry and have children. Selva, a woman considered a witch because of her behavior which is unusual for these times. she arrives in the community with her companion Emilio Errani, an idealistic inventor who wants to try to modernize the back-breaking traditional farming methods. Maria becomes their friend, and this friendship seems to confirm the voices that accuse the girl: Maria too is a "masca", a witch. The community feels threatened by the changes innovations bring and reacts to Errani s efforts forcing him to abandon his projects. At the same time, the community wants to protect its culture based on the mysteries of nature, this inevitably harms Maria: the village Teacher she loves abandon s her, giving into popular opinion. Abandoned, this is the moment Maria needs Selva most but she s nowhere to be found, the woman has mysteriously disappeared. These experiences, her disenchant, hardens Maria yet she does not want to give up her dream of motherhood. She offers herself in marriage to Errani even though she doesn t love him. Just when they are setting off to start a new life Maria discovers the truth: she can t have children. So her fate pushes her to a drastic choice one that is unthinkable to her forthright nature: she goes toward an end that is both mysterious and magical.