1946. In a forgotten village in Greece. Anasto finished the first grade with excellent marks. She knows how to read fluently, write beautifully rounded letters, and she knows addition and subtraction. When she grows up, she will become a doctor. But the frost that burns and destroys the land, that shatters dreams, will block her path. Anasto will drop out of school and become a "day laborer." A life in foreign servitude, she will wait in vain for a miracle. A miracle that only a "deus ex machina" - author can offer her. [Excerpt from the text on the back cover of the edition]