When war or flood comes, people run away—people, not Trina. Like the border town where she grew up, Stubborn knows how to oppose the fascists who prevent her from being a teacher. She is not afraid to flee to the mountains with her deserter husband. And when the dam waters are about to submerge the fields and houses, she defends herself with what no one can ever take away from her: her words.
The water has submerged everything: only the tip of the bell tower emerges from the lake. On the seabed lies the mystery of Curon. We are in South Tyrol, a land of borders and lacerations, where not even the language you learned as a child belongs to you to the core. When Mussolini bans German, and even the names on the tombstones are changed, all that remains is to choose the words one by one to try to tell. Trina is a young mother who adds her own to the wound of the community: she continually invokes the name of her daughter, who disappeared without a trace during the years of fascism.
Since then, she has never stopped waiting for her, writing to her, hoping that her words can give her back. Until the war comes knocking on her door, Trina follows her deserter husband into the mountains, where they both learn to live with death. Then the long post-war period brings no peace. And so, while the reader follows the story of this family and would like to reach out to Trina, he suddenly finds himself rushed to observe, day after day, the construction of the dam that will submerge the houses and the streets, the pains and illusions, rebellion and loneliness.
