Landi spends long stretches alone in the inhospitable Cuban swamp to the west of Zapata. There, he stocks up on what nature has to offer and poaches crocodiles with little more than his bare hands. On the coast, his wife, Mercedes, cares for their son who has severe autism. The days go by and Mercedes grows impatient, Landi should have been back by now and she has no news. Finally, he returns, laden with meat that they trade for other food to subsist for a while until he must go back inland to the marshes. Their lives are a circle marked by need and absences.