The children of a coastal village encounter the large, drowned body of a man which washes up on the beach. The body is covered with many items from the sea. A few men from the coastal village carry the body to the nearest house in the village, noticing that it is of an extreme weight and height. They speculate that the drowned body has absorbed water, making it heavier, and that it has grown taller in death. It is immediately clear that the body is a stranger’s, as the village is quite tiny and its inhabitants can see that no one is missing.
The village men travel to neighboring villages to see if any village is missing a man. The village women stay behind to tend to the drowned man’s body. They remove the mud and sea plants that still cling to his body and see that he is extraordinarily handsome—he is the best built and most virile man they have ever seen.
The women attempt to make clothes for the man, as no article from the village fits him. While the women work, they fantasize about the drowned man’s life and personality. They imagine, at first, that he was magnificent man whose house was marvelous. They picture him performing incredible feats, such as him calling fish out of the water and planting flowers on cliffs. The women put down their own men in comparison, imagining the drowned man as someone far more capable.
The women are pulled out of their fantasies by the most elderly woman’s comment that the man “has the face of someone named Esteban.” Some disagree at first, but eventually everyone agrees. Prompted by the woman’s remarks, they feel profound pity for the man, whose body must have inconvenienced him in life, as it still bothers him in death. The women imagine him awkwardly navigating houses that are too small for a man of his stature, and people who ridicule him when he leaves. They weep for the drowned man and place a handkerchief over his face.
The men return with the news that the drowned man does not belong to a neighboring village. The women express deep relief that the man is now their own. Fatigued from nighttime travel, the men wish to quickly dispose of the body. They construct a makeshift platform to which they will tie an anchor. But the women find many ways of delaying the drowned man’s burial. They decorate his body with an assortment of items.
The village men become distrustful of the women and their attachment to a floating corpse and begin to grumble. Hurt by the men’s lack of care, a woman removes the handkerchief from the drowned man’s face. The men are stunned by the drowned man’s features. They are moved by the humility of his features and lose their mistrust.
The village holds an elaborate funeral for the drowned man. The women get so many flowers that it is hard to walk about. The villagers select a family for the man so that through his relation to these people, all of the village is his kin. While they bring the man to his burial, they recognize for the first time the desolate qualities of their village. The villagers vow to paint their walls in bright colors and make houses with wider doors and taller ceilings in order to honor the drowned man’s memory. They imagine a future in which a captain points to their promontory, which is covered with pungent flowers, and states that this is Esteban’s village.
