Raul de Carvalho

Ana Maria loves a modest guitar player, Júlio; when she herself in a 'retiro' (typical fado tavern), public and critics rend major applause. Fame brings about new friends, namely bohemian young who play and sing the fado with her, and not so young men but who rich and powerful enough to patronize her, promote her, and wish to become intimate with her. Júlio the guitarist feel betrayed, and he sets his mind to depart to the African colonies, to leave her forever. Knowing that he's going to embark, Ana Maria's heart between her first love, and the appeal of the rich and famous.

Seven years after the disastrous Battle of Alcácer Quibir, where King Sebastian and the nobleman Dom João disappeared, the latter's wife Dona Madalena de Vilhena finally gives up hope that he'll return and marries the knight Dom Manuel de Sousa Coutinho, with whom she has a daughter, who is afflicted by a fatal illness. Now only the tutor Telmo Pais retains the hope that the lost husband is alive, a premonition that may be confirmed after two decades, with the arrival of a mysterious pilgrim...

João, a blacksmith in Portugal, lives with his wife, two children and father. After work, he goes to the cabaret, where he meets up with Ana, his mistress. Ana is seduced by a fado singer, provoking João's jealousy.

15th century. D. Afonso, an old jealous nobleman, demands that all stay away when his wife, D. Leonor, goes to church to pray to Our Lady of Mercês. Another nobleman, D. Rui, sees her and fells under the spell or he beauty. D. Afonso orders his wife to retreat to Quinta do Cabril, and decides, one night, to stab his rival to death. It is then that a hanged man decides to intervene. - MOTELx

The characteristic loves of Margarida and Clara, the distinct moral of Pedro and Daniel, the goodness of João Semana, and the dissidents, sensibility, tenderness, rituals and landscape involvement of the Minho.

To get away from the boredom of the city, Henrique de Souzelas visits his aunt Doroteia, in a picturesque village in the North, where he becomes attracted to his young, beautiful cousin Madalena.

In 1336, Pedro, heir to the Portuguese crown, marries Constanza Manuel de Villena, a Castilian noblewoman, for political reasons; but the impulsive prince ends up giving in to his love for Inés de Castro, his wife's lady-in-waiting.