To the family in the house crouched between the hills, Aunt Zita's annual visits, like the north wind that accompanies her, bring chaos, terror and enchantment.

Yet to the young narrator, Aunt Zita's visits herald every wild night of the imagination: here fabulous feasts precede fantastic flights on the wind's back, over the sleeping village to all the glittering balls and exotic colours of an unknown world.

Only the advent of Aunt Thelma and the winter wind can quench Zita's fire - that and the people from the village who cannot bear her magic...