In the Basque country,near the French/Spanish border, the wind,Tramontana ,almost never stops blowing and howling;Laurent ,a misanthropist who has seen it all before , lives on a small island in the middle of a river with his mistress,Louvaine, a failed piano player ,and his servant ,Pepita ,secretly in love with him ,who hates that "painted woman".Shortly afterward ,laurent fires her and her half-wit son . Louvaine becomes seriously ill.A former prisoner,a Republican escaped from general Franco's jails ,who has taken refuge in Laurent's barn,tells him that his woman must be operated for appendicitis : as no boat can reach the island, he urges him to let him perform the operation with makeshift means.