María

After six years at school in Bogotá, Efraín comes home to his family's hacienda in the green Valle del Cauca and finds María, the gentle orphaned cousin raised alongside him, grown into a young woman he loves with aching tenderness. They walk the rose gardens, read together in the shade, and trade glances that say what neither dares to speak. Efraín wants a life rooted here beside her, but his studies call him to Europe, and strange, sudden spells of illness leave María pale and breathless. As the day of parting nears, every river, mountain and flowering tree seems to hold them closer even as it warns that happiness this perfect cannot be kept waiting.