Teruel, north-east Spain, winter, 1937. The civil war is raging, pitting neighbour against neighbour, tearing families apart. Franco's Nationalist rebels have surrounded the devastated, Republican-held city. The people are struggling to survive in a battle zone, enduring the coldest winter in decades.
This is the story of a house, of the people who take refuge there - and a dangerous secret within. While the bombs fall and the world crumbles, María and her sister Julita, bitterly entrenched on different sides of the conflict, mourn their lost loved ones and try to bury their differences. It's the only way they can build a small, safe space where their children and friends can shelter from the chaos and destruction all around.
But only one person knows the secret of the house, hidden deep in the dark– a deserter from the conflict, a soldier who has dared to leave the fighting to come home – and the woman who dares to protect him.
In The Dark is a heart-rending tale of the bitter daily hardships of survival during war, of the struggle to extract truth from a multitude of truths – and of a love that yearns to transcend the conflict, no matter what the cost.