Melancholic and atheist bank clerk Manuel is stuck in a love triangle with two women, the fiery art model Albertina and the quiet and religious Ana Maria. After spending several years working in Africa, Manuel returns to Portugal only to find both women already married, and his life marred by problems.
The fatalism caught up and the amorous tragedy between Teresa de Albuquerque and Simão Botelho, who survives the intolerant litigation of her noble families.
A Portuguese bourgeois dares to look at a Spanish lady's delicate ankles at the beach, but his wife will have nothing of it. Later, it's him that forbids his daughter from seeing a young man she had met at the same beach.
During a reception at a noble house, during the XVIII century, an ancient courtesan takes the petals of a marigold off, one-by-one, and remembers his encounter - and separation - of the woman he loved.