Whispering bees

Every child is a miracle of nature, but this one is doubly so...

The strange foundling Simonopio, condemned to eternal silence because of his disfigured face and accompanied by a swarm of bees, is considered by some inhabitants of the Mexican town of Linares to be a child kissed by the devil. But for the family of Francisco Morales, a wealthy and enlightened landowner who takes him in, the boy with the gift of looking into the future is more of a blessing. It is 1918, the old order is ending in revolution-torn Mexico, and rich and poor alike are being slaughtered by the thousands by an unknown disease that will eventually go down in history as the Spanish flu. In times like these, a miracle is certainly useful, and the story of the Morales family, told decades later by Francisco's aged son, contains many of them. But even they cannot stop the creeping human envy that is at the root of all strife, wars and class struggles.