Altzerreka is an old homestead situated in a gloomy spot beside a bridge. Sabina Gojenola is also old, a widow who stubbornly rules over the house and its other inhabitant, her brother-in-law Henry who has been an invalid since one of his legs was amputated. Despite her children's efforts to help her with day-to-day living, Sabina rejects all comforts so as to avoid following paths laid by others. She values the company of her sheep, her dog and her cat, the only creatures to whom she shows any affection. Her relationship with her family is tense and mistrustful; with her neighbours, riddled with disagreements and envy. With precise prose and a lively style, Miren Muriza's novel offers us a portrait, as rough as it is accurate, of a rural woman who rebels against the end of her way of living. This is the source of her nickname 'Basa' ('Base'), a word that still can't quite describe her independent character and rejection of convention.