A young journalist asks an old artist about the portrait of a naked Indian woman that he has in his study. The artist tells the story of Maria Candelaria, a young Indian woman who was rejected by her own people for being the daughter of a prostitute. She is protected by a young Indian man, Lorenzo Rafael, who has fallen in love with her.

A mute fisherman helps another whose boat capsizes, he dies and leaves behind a girl whom he raises as his own daughter.

A young woman falls in love with a classical pianist and has problems with her friends from high society.

In mid-nineteenth century Guanajuato, the beauty and charm of the young heiress Amalia conquers the lowly foreman Ricardo with fatal results. Prevented from consummating their love, Ricardo is going to Guanajuato where again later become the rich owner of a mine. On his return, fate has prepared a tragic encounter with Amalia.

About the Russian dancer Yolanda who arrives in Mexico with her company in 1909. There she falls in love with the young cadet Julio. However, the influential Carlos opposes this love. He wants Yolanda for himself and threatens her with a possible deportation to Siberia if she rejected his romantic advances.

The disaffected wife of a failed civil servant, is thrilled to re-encounter Octavio, a former lover who is now a union activist on the run from a corrupt politician. Hoping to help him, she descends into the Mexican underworld, where she finds a purpose-and a thrill-missing from her married life.

Reactionary local "Big Daddy" tries to prevent a school being built in his district.

On the eve of the Grito de Dolores and faced with the threat of being arrested by the viceregal government, Miguel Hidalgo suggested to Captain Allende that the flag of the insurgent movement be the banner of the Virgin of Guadalupe.

Young priest Father Sebastián is assigned to a parish in San Jeronimo el Alto, where he is not welcomed by the community, particularly the resident priest Father Damián. The newcomer gradually earns the trust of the people through humor, but firmly captures their hearts by saving the town fiesta by fighting a bull when the hired torero failed to show. Father Sebastián counsels the townspeople, lecturing them on their duties in a modern society. He used the collection plate to redistribute the town's wealth more evenly.

Lopitos, who is horribly inefficient but quick-witted, is invited (because of the current ambassador's superstition about 13 sitting down to a meal) to a banquet attended by the ambassadors of both superpowers. After the news of a series of coups d'état in Los Cocos arrives throughout the meal, Lopitos becomes the official ambassador. At a summit of world leaders, the representatives of the two world superpowers court the allegiances of third-world diplomats to tilt the balance of global power in their favor. The last diplomat to remain unaligned, Lopitos instead harangues the superpowers for infringing on the rights of developing countries to self determination, talking to them with his point of view as a citizen not as ambassador because he arranged his demise as ambassador one day before his speech.