Manuela de Fora, an elegant woman, widow of Pajares, lives with the sole obsession of marrying well her two daughters from her second marriage, Concha Blanca Jara and Amparo. She also has Juanito, son from her first marriage, but she despises him for wanting to be a merchant, like his father. Who really appreciates the laborious Juanito is his uncle Juan, a man of austere habits that blames his sister Manuela for wasting money to pretend being of high social position.

Madrid, 1993. Two old friends down on their luck kidnap a college girl and demand ransom from her family.

The story of the Balmis Expedition, funded by the King of Spain, to bring the smallpox vaccine to Spanish America.

Miquel moves to a town in the Spanish countryside. He is there to work in an industrial mill, ran by siblings María and Ángel. María, who dislikes her work and the neighbours she has to do business with, finds in Miquel a person similar to her.