Ángel, Ovidi Montllor a soft-spoken, withdrawn man, lives an isolated life in a rustic farmhouse tucked among the woodlands around Segovia. His only constant companion is his brash, domineering mother, Martina, whose harsh presence shapes his every move. As an alimañero, Ángel is tasked with killing wolves and other predators to protect the deer in a nearby hunting reserve, a job that blurs the line between necessity and deceit. To survive, he secretly cheats the local civil guards, selling the meat and skins of the animals he takes, keeping a precarious balance between his moral code and the demands of the world outside his doorstep.
During autumn hunting season, the Governor—José Luis Borau—arrives with a retinue for a stag hunt and lodges at Ángel’s secluded house. The Governor is drawn to Martina, a woman who once nursed him, a connection that complicates the dynamics inside the quiet, tense household. The visit unsettles Ángel, who watches as his mother basks in renewed attention while he worries about the scrutiny that accompanies an outsider’s gaze. The Governor’s entourage amplifies the sense of being watched, and the forest itself feels both intimate and dangerous as the hunt begins.
In town, Ángel arms himself with traps, rope, and nooses, buying what he needs to continue his furtive work. He has already killed a wolf and brought its skin back to his home, a trophy that underscores the precarious economy he navigates. In the street, he encounters Milagros, a young woman who is desperate to escape trouble. Milagros is the girlfriend of a notorious delinquent nicknamed “El Cuqui” Felipe Solano, and she has fled a local reformatory in hopes of running away with him. Still wearing the reformatory uniform and low on money, Milagros boldly sizes up Ángel, who is both intrigued and warned by her audacity. She seduces him, treating him as a fool only to reveal a new possibility: a clandestine future together. Ángel buys her new clothes, and after a brief, clandestine night at a hidden hotel, he invites Milagros to return to the forest with him. Though she is initially wary, Milagros ultimately agrees to accompany him on a bus toward the trees, a decision that promises both escape and danger for them both.
Back at the house, Martina reacts with jealousy and volatility as Ángel delays in town. The Governor’s arrival and the attention lavished on Martina intensify the mother’s sense of having been displaced, and she takes out her anger on a trapped wolf, brutally killing the animal with an axe. Milagros, meanwhile, plans to vanish with Ángel, staying hidden until El Cuqui comes for her. Ángel, despite his mother’s protests, is determined that Milagros remain by his side and begin to build a life with him in a world that feels increasingly separate from the rules they once knew.
The hunting party proceeds with a mix of ritual and aimless tension. The Governor shoots at a deer that dodges away, while Ángel, elsewhere in the forest, kills another deer and hides the kill from sight. At first, Ángel tries to shield Milagros from the Governor’s attention, but Martina’s jealousy compels Milagros to come forward, and the Governor’s interest shifts toward her. The Governor decides to set Milagros free rather than return her to the reformatory, provided Ángel takes responsibility for her. This turn of events deepens the rift between Ángel and Martina, who now feels supplanted and exposed as Milagros inches closer to a future with Ángel.
Milagros’ plan to stay is complicated by El Cuqui’s looming return. When the police close in on El Cuqui in the forest, the Governor asks Ángel to track him—the most familiar person to the area. Ángel confronts El Cuqui and, after a tense pursuit, lets him go when Milagros promises to remain with Ángel if her lover is spared. El Cuqui escapes, and Milagros’s belongings are later found in their shared space, confirming a shift that Ángel did not anticipate. He searches the room for clues about Milagros, discovering keepsakes that she would have never left behind. The truth he uncovers is brutal: Martina, out of jealousy, has murdered Milagros, the woman Ángel believed he could build a life with.
In the wake of this revelation, Ángel remains composed. He tells his mother that they will go to church the next day, and he dresses in his forest guard uniform for the occasion. Martina attends communion, and, at Ángel’s urging, also confesses. On the way home from Sunday mass, Ángel shoots Martina in the snow-dusted field, ending a volatile, destructive chapter and forcing him to confront the price of his twisted, co-dependent world.
Through a slow, unsettling arc, the story moves from an isolated, ritualized life in the woods to a moment of brutal finality. Ángel’s ascent to a position of formal authority as a Forest Guard seems to offer social legitimacy and a measure of protection against the illicit practices that once sustained him. Yet the ending hinges on a personal reckoning: the cost of jealousy, the fragility of trust, and the violence that emerges when love, loyalty, and survival collide. The film lingers on the stark, wintry landscape and the quiet, devastating choices that define Ángel’s fate, leaving viewers to ponder the thin line between protector and predator, and the irremediable damage that can unfold within a family bound by silence and fear.
