The Seara Velha is one of the most secluded mountain villages in Trás-os-Montes, at a time when the Napoleonic troops are already being routed, and trying to pass the high mountains towards Spain. Sporadic shots in the distance testimony that there is some opposition conducted by the local men, ambushed in the hills, against the retreating Napoleonic army. The village, a mere handful of houses roughly built of granite, is deserted. Well, almost. There are the two young French soldiers who have deserted their army, and decide to vent their anger, and hunger, on the chickens and sheep without a shepherd that run about in the main street. A short widow, hidden in the church, sees the rude behaviour of the two miscreants towards the icon of Santiago, of which they break the head off. She could prevent them from desecrating the church wine, by instructing her teenage son to bury the bottles in the cemetery, aided by two younger children. Then, she shows herself at the tavern, and induces them to feel confident to the point of drinking a little too much. When they try to have their way with her, and even with her son, the good Christian feels no qualms to dispatch them with a flick-blade. When the peace returns to the village, she shows the priest where she buried the head of saint Inacio - and the French soldiers’ bodies.