In Almagen, a village in the Andalucian mountains, Staffe nurses himself back from the brink of death. One day his friend, Manolo, takes Staffe to visit Almeria and tells him about a body that has been found buried in an old greenhouse. It emerges that this murder mirrors the methods of torture used during Spain's civil war. Soon Almagen's own secret past rises to the surface, bringing with it family feuds and an expatriate ménage of a famous British artist, a Vietnam war vet, and a beautiful German heiress. Between the sierra and the sea, everyone wants to bury the past – except Staffe ...