Set in a little remote village, where everyone is very religious and primitive, it tells the story of Joana, the most beautiful girl in village. She is badly regarded by all other women because they envy her and her affairs with men. As soon as accidents start happening involving her (at some point, she holds an already sick baby and he eventually dies), the women (and slowly, men too) in the village start claiming that she is possessed by the devil. At first,she doesn't believe it. They ask for two priests to exorcise her, but they leave and say to the people that she isn't possessed at all, and that people need to relax. But, little by little, they start convincing Joana that she is really possessed and she starts entering a stage of slight madness and behaving like she is. So, people "believing" that she isn't going to die, and that the demon will leave her body, with her permission, they end up burning her alive...
The struggle between two friends: one, symbolizes the deepest incredulity about religion; the other, priest Manuel, endures insults with stoic resignation, but doesn't give up on installing words of faith in the hope of recovering his soul for God.
In a pathetic atmosphere, in which everyone defends the primacy of their beliefs, they feel surrounded by a bundle of circumstances linked to a secret of love, with an unexpected and disconcerting outcome ...