grows up obsessed with thoughts of her natural father, euphemistically called "Uncle" Walter. Her father, the youngest of a large family, restlessly wanders the earth for decades and periodically sends back letters decorated with exquisite drawings of birds. Walter's infrequent visits home first electrify the family but ultimately begin a cycle of gossip that threatens to undermine even the deep feelings that the girl has for her father. The family estate crumbles over the decades, as each of the male heirs departs to seek a better life, leaving behind little more than the patriarch Francisco Dias, the girl, her mother, and the man who married her mother, appropriately named Custodio.