While attending a religious boarding school, Pedro da Silva, an orphan, discovers his mother’s identity: the Countess Ângela de Lima. With the help of Father Dinis, Pedro’s real guardian and protector, the Countess is given a chance to get to know the child she was forced to abandon, the bastard son of a forbidden passion.

Young Pedro da Silva learns the story of how his mother had met the Count of Santa Barbara, and was forced to become his wife. Meanwhile, Lisbon’s high society is introduced to Alberto de Magalhaes, a successful nobleman who challenges any convention he deems fit, and his presence creates more mysteries. And Pedro da Silva will suffer his life’s first blow, in watching his mother retreat to a convent upon the death of the Count of Santa Barbara.

Alberto de Magalhaes reveals his true identity to Father Dinis, who, in turn, also has his hidden identities, the result of a life full of secrtes. In Santarem, Friar Baltazar da Encarnação provides yet another revelation, one that tells of his youth spent in Venice, and that will end up shocking the priest...

At the convent where the Countess of Santa Barbara has secluded herself, she meets an old acquaintance, D. Antónia, soul sister of Father Dinis, who tells the story of her mother, Anacleta the Healer, a woman who met only with tragedy after betraying her husband, Don Teotónio. Later in life, and with her better fortune, she herself is betrayed in turn by a cunning young lover. These events all lead to a tragic destiny for D. Antónia and her sisters...

Alberto de Magalhães finally has his French history catch up to him in Lisbon, in the form of Elise de Monfort, a beautiful French woman with her heart set on vengeance. Meanwhile, Alberto has married, by coincidence, the Count of Santa Barbara’s former lover, Eugenia. And as our story always seems to gravitate around Father Dinis, it is revealed that Elise’s mother, Blanche de Monfort, had been the object of his passions during his youth spent in France...

Pedro da Silva, now a grown man, meets and falls in love with Elise de Monfort. And after entangling himself in a duel to the death with Alberto de Magalhaes, he learns of the true depths of her vengeance. With his heart broken from the news of his mother’s death, he embarks on a journey to Tangiers, and to finally disappear. His long voyage finally lands him in Brazil, where he reminisces about his whirlwind life...