In the director’s first feature Spiral, husbands leave their wives behind to look for better paid work, yet they are unaware that they are destroying the very thing they are trying to protect. In La tirisia they discover upon their return that nothing will ever be the same. Cheba’s husband betrayed her twice: when he abandoned her in search of a decent wage, and then when he came back. During his absence Cheba and another local woman, Ángeles Miguel, became pregnant by the same man. In an environment devoid of love and compassion, the two women are now faced with an agonising decision: do they abandon their children or their partners? In a remote village in the desert, among the huge cacti, the director unfolds a metaphorical story of his characters’ agonising wait for opportunity: "In Oaxaca I saw a lot of children living with their grandparents because their mothers had abandoned them to live with another man. I wanted to explore this problem through the eyes of women who were trying to find happiness; at the same time I wanted to show that their struggle was futile, since these women eventually succumb to an illness of the soul known as tirisia – perpetual sorrow.”