Surrounded by forest and reached only by a treacherous road, the sleepy South American town of Valle de la Virgen is almost unknown to the outside world. After a silent stranger rolls in on the back of a pick-up truck, nothing is the same again. Life for the town's inhabitants has not turned out as they once dreamed. Doña Nicanora never did escape the swamp town and travel the world, Don Bosco did not marry the woman he loved, and the mayor is yet to achieve power and influence. But with the arrival of the foreigner, known only as Gringito, their dreams start to be reawakened....