Gilberto, a young man from the countryside, arrives in the city with the aim of carving out a future for himself. Initially he is dazzled by the sparkling image of the city, the spoiler of civilization, which will batter him until his personality undergoes a radical change.

The captain of a small vessel, regularly sailing between his home island of Margarita Island in the Caribbean and the Venezuelan mainland, has two separate and very different relationships. At home, he is happily married, having named his boat Isabel after his wife. Yet on his visits to the port of La Guaira, he has a passionate affair with Esperanza, a woman working in a seedy cabaret who tries to retain him with hexes and spells. A classic of Latin American cinema, which won Best Cinematography at 1951 Cannes Film Festival.

As José Abreu “Guanipa” is transferred with a group of prisoners to the Guasina camp in the Orinoco Delta, he recalls the torture he was subjected to by SN (National Security) henchmen in order to obtain information about the resistance. In Guasina, the prisoners are subjected to forced labor while they plan their escape. Guanipa is released after signing the bond and the rest of his companions remain in the camp.

Aquilino, better known as "Lepe", is a circus clown who returns to Caracas after several years of absence with his assistant Lepino to discover the whereabouts of his granddaughter Geraldine, the result of a relationship his daughter had with the young millionaire Juan Bértola, who died in a plane crash when Geraldine was just a baby.