Among the indigenous people it is said that two devilish women and a child live in the forest. Juan Aparicio, a rich landowner, organises an expedition and finds seven year old Mara de las Nieves Moran, her impossibly young mother, Juanita, and Lucy Turner, a black maid. Aparicio takes the women back to his house, where Mara de las Nieves will grow up alongside his daughter Fransisca, who is the same age. Mara de la Nieves wants to become a nun, but when the revolution triumphs and the convents close, she finds herself defiant against the whirlpool of her life.