Licia grows up in the beautiful wilderness of a mountain village in Calabria, Italy. Born of terroni with aspirations for their children, she is raised by Grazia, an introverted mother, and Marco, a guest-worker in Germany. She spends her time between the Zimpoli farm of her revolutionary, eccentric grandfather, and the suffocating scrutiny of her fathers relatives in the village of Aquilonia. When the call to immigrate to Canada comes, for Licia, it is a welcome call. But she could not have foreseen that the curse of the Giganteschis, which she hears about for the first time during a schoolyard fight, will follow the family to Toronto and beyond. When Licia finally returns home and retraces the steps of those who loved her and those who hurt her, she understands how her mother's life, and her own life, are intertwined with the mysterious women who were her mother's only friends: her uncle's mistress, a nun in a cave, and a witch who delivers babies.