Daniel's father takes ten-year-old Daniel to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books for the very first time.

Daniel chooses a novel called The Shadow of the Wind by Julián Carax as his book to protect for life.

Daniel meets the blind Clara Barceló and begins reading Carax's novel aloud to her almost daily.

A scarred, burned stranger confronts Daniel at the docks and vows to destroy every copy of the book.

Daniel discovers Clara in bed with her music teacher and flees the apartment with his copy of the novel.

Outside the Barceló building, Daniel meets a beggar named Fermín and later returns the book to the Cemetery.

Daniel rescues Fermín from street homelessness and brings him to work at the Sempere family bookshop.

Daniel takes Bea to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books on their secret first date, and they kiss.

Daniel and Bea become lovers inside the cold, abandoned Aldaya mansion for the first time.

Daniel follows stone steps into the Aldaya basement and discovers Penélope Aldaya's sealed tomb.

Nuria Monfort is stabbed to death, and Fermín is falsely accused of her murder by the police.

Isaac Monfort gives Daniel a handwritten manuscript Nuria left behind containing the full truth about Julián Carax.

Tomás Aguilar beats Daniel on the stairs and reveals that his sister Bea is pregnant with Daniel's child.

Fumero shoots Daniel in the chest inside the mansion; Julián hurls Fumero onto the broken fountain angel, killing him.

Daniel and Bea marry; years later Daniel takes his ten-year-old son Julián to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books.

Daniel Sempere's life changes forever when his father takes him to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books and he claims a novel by the mysterious Julián Carax. Obsessed with finding the truth about Carax's disappearance, Daniel pursues clues across Barcelona while falling in love for the first time. A scarred figure known as Laín Coubert shadows Daniel's search, threatening to destroy every surviving copy of Carax's books. Daniel's investigation and his romance with Bea Aguilar pull him deeper into danger, culminating in a violent confrontation with the murderous Inspector Fumero inside the abandoned Aldaya mansion. Daniel is shot and momentarily dies, but survives to marry Bea and raise a son named Julián. A decade later, Daniel brings his own son to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books, completing the cycle that began his story.

The core story of Daniel Sempere and the mystery of Julián Carax.

Wealthy collector Don Barceló offers Daniel a large sum of money for the Carax novel, but Daniel refuses.

Daniel glimpses a dark, mysterious figure smoking a cigarette outside his apartment window late at night.

Daniel's father surprises Daniel with an engraved gold fountain pen as a birthday gift on his sixteenth birthday.

Fermín suffers a screaming breakdown in his boarding house, fully revealing the extent of Fumero's past torture.

A mysterious visitor slips out of the bookshop, leaving behind a singed photograph of Julián Carax and a young woman.

Daniel unlocks Julián Carax's childhood bedroom in the old Fortuny apartment and finds every surface covered in crucifixes.

Inspector Fumero visits the Sempere bookshop and threatens both Daniel and Fermín, making himself a dangerous enemy.

Don Frederico is arrested for cross-dressing and then beaten and violated in a jail cell on Fumero's orders.

Daniel visits Nuria Monfort for the first time and she lies to him, claiming her husband is in prison.

Daniel and Fermín visit Father Fernando at San Gabriel's School and learn about Julián's troubled school years and friendships.

Fumero and his thugs ambush and savagely beat Fermín outside the hospice as Daniel watches helplessly nearby.

Don Barceló reveals that Fumero personally identified and ordered Julián Carax's body buried in an unmarked mass grave.

Fumero and his thugs burst into the Sempere apartment, pressing a gun to Daniel's face and demanding Fermín's location.

Policeman Palacios delivers Nuria's dying message to Daniel at her funeral, revealing she never stopped loving Julián Carax.

Julián Carax appears silently at Daniel's hospital bedside, says farewell, and has vanished by morning leaving the pen case empty.

While pursuing the mystery of Julián Carax, Daniel navigates a web of dangerous encounters, unlikely alliances, and painful discoveries about the world around him. A menacing stranger watches him from shadows, a singed photograph appears mysteriously in his bookshop, and the corrupt Inspector Fumero begins targeting those closest to Daniel. The rescue and slow recovery of Fermín Romero de Torres becomes central to Daniel's growth, as the two men develop an unbreakable bond of loyalty and mutual protection. Daniel's visits to Father Fernando, Nuria Monfort, and the decaying remnants of Julián's old haunts slowly piece together the fractured story of Carax's life and disappearance. Fumero's violence escalates against Don Frederico, Fermín, and finally Nuria Monfort herself, forcing the investigation toward its deadly conclusion. After Daniel survives being shot, Julián Carax makes one ghostly final visit to his hospital bedside before vanishing entirely.

The hidden dangers, friendships, and discoveries that shaped Daniel's investigation.

Isaac Monfort reveals that his daughter Nuria saved all of Julián Carax's remaining books and hid them in the Cemetery.

Daniel encounters Bea Aguilar at the university and arranges to show her a hidden side of Barcelona.

Daniel grabs Bea's engagement letter and throws it into the fireplace, choosing her over her soldier fiancé.

Jacinta Coronado reveals that Fumero witnessed Julián and Penélope kissing, then brought a shotgun to school to kill Julián.

Daniel returns to confront Nuria Monfort directly about her lies, accusing her of protecting Julián Carax's killer.

Nuria's manuscript reveals she stayed with Julián in his Paris apartment and the two became lovers.

Nuria's manuscript reveals that Penélope and Julián were actually half-siblings, both fathered by the powerful Don Ricardo Aldaya.

Nuria's manuscript reveals that Penélope died alone hemorrhaging after giving birth to a stillborn son, locked in her room.

Nuria's manuscript reveals that Fumero gave Jorge Aldaya a faulty pistol designed to explode, using him to lure Julián back to Barcelona.

Nuria's manuscript reveals that Miquel Moliner shot two policemen so Julián could escape and was killed in return.

Nuria's manuscript reveals that Julián broke into the sealed basement crypt and found Penélope's and baby David's marble tombs.

Nuria's manuscript reveals that Julián burned all his novels as Laín Coubert and was severely burned in a warehouse fire.

Nuria's manuscript reveals that Julián spent years secretly watching Daniel grow up from the shadows, seeing his younger self in the boy.

Bea holds the dying Daniel and declares her love; Daniel sees visions of possible futures and his dead mother's face.

Fermín becomes the new caretaker of the Cemetery of Forgotten Books; Daniel takes his young son Julián there for the first time.

Beneath the surface of Daniel's investigation lie a series of devastating truths, gradually uncovered through confession, confrontation, and the posthumous words of Nuria Monfort. A secret hidden in the Cemetery about Nuria's role in saving Carax's books leads Daniel toward key witnesses, including Jacinta Coronado, who reveals Fumero's obsessive and violent hatred of Julián from their shared schooldays. Daniel's own love story reaches a turning point when he chooses Bea over her safe but loveless engagement, consciously mirroring the doomed romance of Julián and Penélope. Nuria's handwritten manuscript then unleashes the full tragedy: Julián and Penélope were unknowing half-siblings, Penélope died alone in childbirth behind a locked door, and Miquel Moliner sacrificed his life to save his oldest friend. The discovery of Penélope's tomb drove Julián into madness and self-destruction as Laín Coubert, while he silently watched over Daniel from the shadows for years. Daniel survives the novel's violent climax and fulfills the cycle of memory and love that Julián Carax never could.

The revelations and decisions that unlocked the tragic truth of Julián Carax's life.