By 1930, Evaristo, a humble worker who lives near the Riachuelo river in Buenos Aires, is preparing to go to work with two partners when his daughter Mary calls him from her bed with a fever, forcing him to turn back. The tram that the three workers missed then falls into the river, taking the lives of almost all on board. This grim event, along with other strange episodes, helps Mary earn a reputation for foreseeing what might come next.
By 1940, Mary has grown into a very happy, though nonetheless chaste, young woman. One afternoon, on a bus, she spots a young man who smiles at her; when she exits, he follows to learn where she lives. That night she tells her father that she has chosen a husband, even though she does not yet know his name or where he lives.
Rosita, a friend of Mary, announces her sudden wedding. At the wedding party, Tito, a pharmacist friend, reveals that Rosita is marrying because she is pregnant and that abortion would have been too dangerous. On hearing the word abortion, Mary feels a wave of revolt, grows dizzy, and flees the party. She bursts out, furious: > They're all whores ... it's all shit.
That summer, Mary is reunited with the man from the bus, Cholo, who works for a meat-packing company with his brothers and is also a boxer. Mary invites him to her house and they quickly begin a relationship. At New Year’s Eve, Mary meets Cholo’s family: his widow mother Mrs. America, his brother Raul and Raul’s wife Sofia, his brother Hector and his wife Luisa, and his sister Claudia and her husband Ariel. At Mary’s urging, Cholo leaves boxing behind.
Cholo and Mary share a passionate bond. Cholo tries to consummate the relationship, but Mary declares she will marry a virgin and waits for the church wedding. When Cholo again tries to force himself on her, she rejects him violently. Five days later they reconcile and soon plan their wedding. On the day of the civil ceremony Mary announces that she will remain a virgin until the church wedding, to be held two days later. Again Cholo attempts to force himself, but she rejects him decisively. After the church wedding, they spend a fiery wedding night in a Buenos Aires hotel and consummate their union.
Sofia, Cholo’s sister-in-law, worries that she is pregnant again, fearing complications from a previous delivery. Mary declares that “it is better to sacrifice one’s life rather than to kill a child … it is very dangerous to play with fate.” Sofia decides to have an abortion, but the procedure proves fatal. After the funeral, Mary initially says Sofia deserved what happened, yet she later resolves to help raise Sofia’s children and honor her memory. Claudia, who believes Mary prophesied Sofia’s death, is skeptical; Mary insists she merely offered advice.
Six months after becoming a widower, Raul begins a relationship with a widow. Mary accuses Raul of desecrating Sofia’s memory, while Ariel, Claudia’s husband and Cholo’s brother-in-law, defends the courtship. Mary asks Ariel, > I wonder what you would think if you were to die and Claudia were to find someone else. < Claudia tells her to shut up. As time passes, Mary’s prophecies continue to weigh on the household, and she drifts away from Cholo’s family.
Ariel’s death in a delivery-truck accident at the wake magnifies Mary’s sense of fatalism. Claudia finds a boyfriend and plans to remarry, while Mary’s mood darkens and she wears black as she withdraws from the world. Only Luisa still visits, but Mary foresees not only Luisa’s death but her own.
When Luisa falls sick with food poisoning, Mary finally loses her grip on reality. She says it is fate that Luisa, and then herself, will die. Luisa recovers, but Mary is asleep when Cholo returns with good news. While Cholo sleeps, Mary rises, strips to reveal her wedding dress, and takes up a knife. In a final, devastating act, Cholo is stabbed to death in their bedroom.
