In a small village near Salamanca, Alejandro, a rich 60-year-old widower falls in love with Goyita, a 13-year-old girl who lives in a modern but rustic country house. Alejandro lives a purposeless life filled by a computer chess, horseback riding, and an elaborate stereo system to which he conducts to the sounds of Haydn's Creation. His wife died several years earlier and they did not have children. Their meeting is well planned by Goyita, who pelts Alejandro with bird's eggs while they are in the woods one day-both have a fondness for identifying birds and hunting for bird's nests. He subsequently identifies her as the young student playing Lady Macbeth in the local village play. Because this serious, mature and reflective teenager is just as alone as Alejandro when they met, she insinuates herself into his life and a strange, overpowering relationship develops between them, at first platonic but later with covert sexual overtones. The older man acts much like a child and later forbids Goyita to see him. Goyita, the daughter of a civil Guardsman, makes more elaborate demands upon Alejandro. He balks at first, then complies, burning his wife’s clothes at her insistence. Finally they swear an oath of allegiance and love in blood. She asks Alejandro to avenge her father for the local civil Guard sergeant, her father's superior officer who set free her pet hawk. Aware of the love he feels for Goyita, Alejandro nevertheless cannot stop her family from sending her off to relatives in Salamanca, to discourage their relationship. Following Goyita there, Alejandro realizes he must fulfill the pact, challenge and kill the sergeant out of love for Goyita. From high above, on horseback in the mountains, Alejandro fires at the sergeant, who is riding with Goyita’s father, but Alejandro is shot and killed by the civil Guards. His rifle contained only blanks indicating his wish to die for his unfulfilled and impossible relationship with Goyita. Alejandro is buried on a hillside on his estate. Several years later, Goyita returns to the grave site, and promises never to give herself sexually to anyone else, a reaffirmation of the love pact they had sworn for eternity.
