On a small Mexican island dwells a group of Indians who live in the traditional manner and who disdain outsiders. The beautiful Maclovia and the poverty-stricken Jose Maria are in love, but her father refuses to allow their marriage, or even any communication between them, due to Jose Maria's lack of means.
In Mexican Revolution times, a guerrilla general and his troops take the conservative town of Cholula, near by Mexico City. As the revolutionaries mistreat the town's riches, General Reyes falls for beautiful and wild Beatriz Peñafiel, the daughter of one of the town's richest men.
Jalisco, 19th century. Diego, a wealthy landowner, secretly marries Amparo, defying her father Juan Manuel, who fiercely opposes the union. Juan Manuel still holds a grudge against Diego, having once been his employer when Diego was just a laborer. Their secret marriage stirs jealousy and resentment, particularly in Octavio, Diego’s servant, and his wife Laura, who harbors unspoken feelings for him. As Diego departs for a military mission in Guadalajara, Juan Manuel, unaware of the marriage, attempts to arrange a match between Amparo and the Spaniard José Luis.
On March 22, four days after returning to his home in Andalusia, Luis de Vargas writes the first of his letters to his uncle and favorite professor at the seminary. He reports that his father intends to fatten him up during his vacation, to have him ready to return in the fall to finish his training for the priesthood. He mentions in passing that his father is courting a twenty-year-old, attractive widow, Pepita Jiménez; his father is fifty-five years old. Pepita had been married for only a short time to an eighty-year-old moneylender named Gumersindo. Luis is not eager to see his father marry again, but he promises his uncle not to judge Pepita before he knows her.
Aristocratic but penniless, the Veradada have to resort to loans Lebanese businessman Jalil, whose son Selim, suffers the scorn of Martha, the daughter of the Veradada wasteful. Being invited to the house of Don Guillermom, Jalil and his wife Suan and Selim are teased and contempt. Finally, the Lebanese family worker puts in place the family of Don Guillermo ridiculous.
There's a lot of confusion about who Alejandra's parents are, and until those questions are resolved, she may not be able to get married.