While attending a religious boarding school, Pedro da Silva, an orphan, discovers his mother’s identity: the Countess Angela de Lima.

Young Pedro learns how his mother had met the Count of Santa Barbara, and was forced to become his wife; Lisbon's high society meets Alberto de Magalhaes, a nobleman who challenges any convention he deems fit-and his presence creates more mysteries.

Alberto de Magalhaes reveals his true identity to Father Dinis; in Santarem, Friar Baltazar da Encarnação provides yet another revelation, one that tells of his youth spent in Venice.

At the convent, the Countess of Santa Barbara 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.

Alberto de Magalhães meets Elise de Monfort, a beautiful French woman with her heart set on vengeance; Alberto marries by coincidence, the Count of Santa Barbara's former lover, Eugenia.

Pedro da Silva, now a grown man, meets and falls in love with Elise de Monfort; Pedro entangles himself in a duel to the death with Alberto de Magalhaes, and learns of the true depths of her vengeance.