With a sudden stroke of the weeding hoe, Augusto Henriques killed Conceição das Neves. All because of some water share matter, nothing much, just one of those quarrels that make part of the local daily life. It was nothing but a trifling thing, however, the truth is that there is a corpse lying where a little time before there was a woman, even though an old one. Conceição is gone. At the age of 65, Augusto has never been arrested, or gone to trial, or has he ever had problems  with the police or the courts. Deep inside, he doesn’t feel guilty, for he was aiming at her shoulder when that damned Conceição bent down. But the real facts are quite real; or that woman wouldn’t be lying dead up there. The best thing Augusto has to do is to give himself up and submit to the justice of men.
On court, the merciful judge condemns him to fourteen years in prison, “due to his age and good behaviour”. However, long before that, Augusto will go back to the places that once were his own. To find out that with a stroke of a weeding hoe - sudden and missing the target - the world may even end.