THE VILLAGE IN THE MOUNTAINS is set in a fictional, southern European country. After a brief period of democratic reform, the nation has once again become a totalitarian state under the rule of the Colonel, whose overriding creed is Loyalty to the State, the Church, the Family. The narrator of the book -- a left-wing poet from a prominent family -- is exiled by the Colonel to a village in the high mountains near the country's border. Against this mountainous backdrop, an intense psychological drama is played out between the poet and the people with whom he comes into contact, compelling him to make a decision that will change his life forever.