Through hard work, the Spaniard Alejandro has become wealthy and powerful. In contrast, the banker Don Victorino—who once refused a loan to the then-poor Alejandro—has fallen on difficult times. Victorino is married to Ana, who spends her life playing the piano, and they are the parents of the proud Julia, who is engaged to Enrique Régules. Julia is forced to marry Alejandro in order to save her family’s financial situation. Despite her husband’s blunt and often harsh honesty, Julia gradually finds herself falling in love with him, and vainly tries to make him jealous with Licenciado Héctor, who courts her. Julia becomes nervously ill, troubled by the fact that Alejandro does not love her in the romantic, storybook way she longs for.