Julio Salas dies after a long illness, but it is Sunday and due to financial difficulties, his family is forced to contract the services of a modest funeral home, whose owner having taken charge of the corpse, sells it to the University.

Following the assassination of Pancho Villa on the outskirts of Parral, Chihuahua, the whole city mourns his death. Villa's closest collaborators hold a wake for the revolutionary hero. Standing out among the mourners are the four women with whom Villa was having intimate relationships at the time of his death. As expected, the tension between the women grows and intensifies, culminating in a dramatic surprise ending.

"Amid a starkly beautiful but uncanny landscape in New Mexico, a married couple from Cambridge, MA takes residency at a distinguished academic institute. When the husband is stricken with a mysterious illness, misdiagnosed at first, their lives are uprooted and husband and wife each embarks upon a nightmare journey. At thirty-seven, Michaela faces the terrifying prospect of widowhood--and the loss of Gerard, whose identity has greatly shaped her own"--...