Ilh�eus in 1925 is a booming town with a record cacao crop and aspirations for progress, but the traditional ways prevail. When Colonel Mendon�ca discovers his wife in bed with a lover, he shoots and kills them both. Political contests, too, can be settled by gunshot...No one imagines that a bedraggled migrant worker who turns up in townleast of all Gabriela herselfwill be the agent of change. Nacib Saad has just lost the cook at his popular caf�e and in desperation hires Gabriela. To his surprise she turns out to be a great beauty as well as a wonderful cook and an enchanting boon to his business. But what would people say if Nacib were to marry her?Lusty, satirical and full of intrigue, Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon is a vastly entertaining panorama of small town Brazilian life.