In the year 1935, the tale follows José Olaya, a 19-year-old anarchist from Asturias who works alongside his father and his brother in a coal mine. When a gas leak traps the workers, the foreman refuses to let women and children leave. Andrés Olaya, José’s ally, defies that order and helps evacuate the miners, but he is severely wounded in a landslide. Carrying his dying relative back to his home, José and his family gather around the bed as Andrés passes away surrounded by those who love him. In a painstakingly painful choice, José decides to dynamite the mine as an act of revenge, a decision that sends him into the Civil Guard’s crosshairs. After the blast, his mother urges him to flee to Argentina with the money Andrés saved, to use a false identity, and to keep the truth of his brother’s death hidden. With a heavy heart, José agrees to live a life in which he pretends to be Andrés, a secret he will guard for decades to come.
Fast-forward to 2001, and we meet the youngest son of an aging José: Ernesto Olaya, an unemployed architect living in Buenos Aires. The looming economic crisis casts a long shadow over his plans, and the Chilean-style banking restrictions known as the Corralito have already frozen his family’s deposits, making it impossible to fund an escape to a better life. When Ernesto decides to move to Spain with his wife and children, the government’s bureaucracy, coupled with xenophobia, slows his progress at every turn. He travels with dreams of opportunity, but the harsh realities of a complex system force him to hide the truth from his family, insisting that he is doing fine and that his life is more secure than it truly is.
The story then shifts back to José’s past, painting a vivid canvas of his Argentina-bound journey. In the crowded La Boca tenements, he encounters Julius Lazlo, a young Hungarian Jew, and Gemma, a nine-year-old Italian girl who has lost her family. The 1940s and 1950s unfold with José navigating the tremors of the Spanish Civil War, a powerful love story between Julius and Gemma, and the shifting political winds of Argentina under Peronism. As the years pass, José forms bonds with the women who will weave into his life, including Sophie, his first wife, and his second wife, Lucía, who ultimately becomes the mother of Ernesto.
Back in Buenos Aires, Ernesto faces his own trials in the architectural world. He temporarily secures an illegal job at an architects’ studio, but the strain of distance from his family grows. His marriage to Cecilia becomes strained as he grapples with honesty and commitment, leading to a painful divorce. As the years pass, Ernesto develops a connection with his roommate, Mara, and the two eventually marry and start a family of their own, building a new life together despite the shadows of the past.
In 2005, Ernesto—now with dual nationality and stable work as an architect—returns to Asturias with his father. There, José confronts the specters of his long-buried history. He contemplates revenge against the foreman who set off the chain of tragedies seventy years earlier, but his heart shifts toward life rather than vengeance. He considers suicide to join the friends he has lost, yet he chooses to live and to reclaim what remains. The finale finds Ernesto and his father standing before Andrés Olaya at Andrés’s grave, where José finally reveals the ultimate secret that has haunted him for decades.
