Set in North Eastern Province of Argentina, this is a Spanish language film with a heroine who barely speaks the language.

Carole Bouquet plays Helene, a French businesswoman who desperately wants a child. She has come to Argentina to buy one, but, while staying at a large estancia (estate), she comes across Martin, a young boy, and his mother Juana. They live in a shack on the periphery of another large estate, which has just been bought, and they have been told to clear off.

Juana is pregnant and decides to take an "abortion pill," which makes her very ill. Helene tries to help, but one night the agent of the new landowner comes and burns down Juana's shed, and she is left destitute. In the ambiguous ending, Helene takes Juana to the hospital, waits with Martin, and we are left to decide whether Juana has lost her baby, or will give it to Helene.

Despite liking the atmosphere and locale very much, and especially Bouquet's central performance, I thought the pacing of the film very off. There are many, many scenes of cars driving across a landscape, bicyclists and figures in the distance, which fail to hold the interest. I also felt the preamble to the film, setting up Helene's dilemma (and character), is too long.

Juana is a pitiable figure, someone with no resources at all, who loves her son but lives on the furthest reaches of poverty, while Helene is a classic person of the developed world - healthy, clean, educated, rich, with a solid sense of her own abilities. She may be a tough businesswoman, but she is also compassionate. I don't think the film is morally simplistic at all - we are encouraged to like and dislike both characters equally.

Helene has come to this place to buy a child, but discovers it is not so easy. While a part of you thinks a baby would be better off in a prosperous home, another part wonders whether Helene should give up her dream and become involved with people as they are.