In the 1980s, Anna from Cologne moves to a Cretan mountain village to be with her boyfriend, the goat herder Ilías, where she meets Ilías' father, who suffered greatly under the German occupation of Crete during World War II. While Anna works hard during the olive harvest to finally gain her father-in-law's acceptance, her best friend Thalia is tormented by an unfulfilled desire to have children. The situation becomes unbearable for Thalia when she learns that Anna is pregnant. Thalia flees the village, putting her marriage at risk. In "The Scent of Olives," Sigrid Wohlgemuth describes how two women confront their fates and grapple with their identity, origins, homeland, and society in Crete.