This novel is about the decline of a once respected and wealthy, now impoverished family in a remote area in the barren inland of northern Sardinia. We experience the uneventful, dreary everyday life in the modest, cramped life of three sisters, their servants and roommates in the village.

Author Grazia Deledda (1871-1936), received the Nobel Prize for Literature. Her most important work is "Schilf im Wind" from 1913.