Quitting her striptease job in Manila, Milagros returns with her mother to the old town when her father dies. She takes on the obligations of her father, working as maid for the landlord′s all-male house-hold and becomes the landlord′s lover. After the landlord′s sickness and death, she is sexually entangled and abused by the three sons-the blind Ramonito, Flamboyant Bennet, and responsible Junie. She is tormented by figures of love and hate, becoming intimate and abusive with her, then dying and leaving her. In her own sickness and imminent death, she continues with her quest for genuine love and happiness, albeit futile. The memory-and its lack-of a father leads Milagros to withstand pain and suffering in her quest, becoming a Christ-like figure that instantaneously brings forth death and redemption, materiality and spirituality, anguish and pleasure, endurance and transcendence. Milagros won the best film and screenplay awards given by the Manunuri Pelikulang Pilipino (Filipino Film Critic′s Group) in 1998. (Rolando B. Tolentino)