It's not easy for a woman to succeed in the high valleys of Pas, a hostile male dominated land where the young Val and her younger sister Genia look after their father Gildo and his household. One day, one of Gildo's cows trespasses into his neighbour Severo's property and is fertilised by a bull. The owner of the lost animal is obliged by these laws to give Severo the calf when it is born.