Verity -- we kid you not -- comes to Southern California as the nurse-companion to Serafina Madariaga Linnet who is in good health to begin with until she begins to fail visibly. Is it her maligned son Thomas or the unacknowledged -- until much later -- Francisco or her servitor Rosa who practices all kinds of unnatural ""natural medicine."" And who will retain el rancho grande of what had been a proud heritage and rich holding? Colorful but not effusive in the genre and a change of locus for all the hocus pocus which is also a little different.