The romantic, fairy tale-like story of the witch of Funtinel mixed with realistic elements - like the author's more important writings - guides the reader back to his narrower homeland, Transylvania. The heroine of the three-volume, voluminous novel is the bewitchingly beautiful girl from the mountains, Nuca. Under the Cathedral, Urszun lives in a strange, round wooden house with his father, the speechless Tóderik. He knows no other law than the law of forests and mountains, nor does he learn goodness from God or in its shadow, but from nature. Her life is not easy, as her father is taken away by the gendarmes, so the ten-year-old girl grows up relying on herself and people's compassion.