At the end of the world or perhaps in the middle of nowhere, there is a small, almost forgotten village: Bukojna. Built in Gora, a province of Albania, Bukojna is inhabited by the Gorani, an ethnic minority with a distinct language, their own legends and rituals, and origins that, according to many, trace back to the Bogomils.

The locals say that there the sun rises twice a day and the moon sets twice every dawn. This ancient settlement hosts people from different roots: from the beautiful Vlachs and the wise Jews to the brave mountain populations. It is a place where "men turn gray before they even become men and see more clearly at night than during the day," as Maika, a woman rumored to have lived here for 300 years, forgotten by death, says.

Within this microcosm of Albanian Gora, where the new regime tries to impose the rules of the dictatorship of the proletariat with the harshness that characterized the 1950s, the story of the novel unfolds. Everything is revealed through the penetrating and suspicious eyes of a child, who observes the world changing around him.

The raw and violent attempt to uproot the memory and identity of man turns into an attack against everything human: the land and its property, the traditional pastures of the borderlands, the customs of marriage and festivals such as Saint George's, Maika's prayers, even the girls' songs. It is a time when time freezes and culture is in danger of fading away, along with the voices of those who carry it.