Alejandro (Héctor Alterio), an aging Spanish hidalgo, lives alone in a great country house, idling away his hours playing computer chess and conducting invisible orchestras. Into his life comes Goyita (Ana Torrent), an adolescent village girl who is the daughter of a Civil Guard. Their relationship creates a bright spot in Alejandro's otherwise staid existence, yet gradually this friendship takes on different overtones. The girl begins to demand more and more of Alejandro's time and emotions, forcing him to burn his late wife's clothes and give her various cherished possessions. Finally her demands become frankly impossible, yet the fear that she might leave him forces Alejandro to take on an elaborate mission of revenge against one of her father's superiors. Extremely well-acted by Torrent (The Spirit of the Beehive, Cría!) and then-exiled Argentine actor Alterio (The Official Story), The Nest presents a dense, complex relationship sympathetically and without sensationalism. Torrent, at fourteen, became the youngest actress ever to win a Best Actress award at a major film festival (Montreal). Richard Peña