Violeta Del Valle is born during the influenza pandemic as the youngest child of the aristocratic Del Valle family.

Arsenio hires Irish governess Josephine Taylor to educate Violeta, transforming her from a spoiled child into a disciplined learner.

After the Wall Street Crash, Arsenio goes bankrupt and dies by suicide; Violeta finds his body in the library.

The Del Valle family relocates to Santa Clara, a farm in Nahuel belonging to Teresa Rivas's parents.

Violeta meets veterinarian Fabian Schmidt-Engler and eventually agrees to marry him despite feeling no real love for him.

Violeta begins an affair with pilot Julián Bravo and immediately leaves Fabian, who refuses to grant an annulment.

Violeta has a son named Juan Martin and later a daughter named Nieves with Julián, and they live together as a family.

Batista flees Cuba and Julián moves his operations base to Miami, leaving Violeta to manage the business and children in Sacramento.

Nieves falls into heroin addiction and sex work; Julián hires ex-convict turned detective Roy Cooper to track her movements.

Nieves dies of eclampsia after giving birth to a son named Camilo; Violeta brings the baby home to Sacramento.

A military coup topples the Socialist government; Juan Martin is placed on a banned list and forced to go into hiding.

Torito guides Juan Martin across national borders on foot; weeks later, Violeta learns soldiers captured and killed Torito.

Human bones are found in a sealed cave near Nahuel; Violeta identifies Torito's wooden cross among the victims' belongings.

Zoraida turns over evidence of Julián's illegal businesses to authorities; Julián is convicted of fraud and drug trafficking.

Violeta marries Norwegian diplomat Harald Fiske and spends her final years at Santa Clara, dying there during the coronavirus pandemic.

Violeta Del Valle is born into an aristocratic family during the influenza pandemic and is shaped from childhood by the governess Josephine Taylor. Her family is plunged into poverty when her father goes bankrupt and dies by suicide after the Wall Street Crash, forcing a relocation to a rural farm called Santa Clara. Violeta eventually marries without love, then abandons that marriage for a passionate but abusive affair with pilot Julián Bravo, with whom she has two children. Personal tragedy deepens when her daughter Nieves dies in childbirth, but Violeta raises Nieves's newborn son Camilo as her own. Political upheaval forces her son Juan Martin into exile and leads to the death of her beloved Torito, driving Violeta toward decades of activism for women's causes. She finds lasting happiness with Norwegian diplomat Harald Fiske before dying peacefully at Santa Clara during the coronavirus pandemic, a century after her birth.

Violeta's life from birth to death across a turbulent century.

Doctors discover a tumor in Josephine's abdomen; José Antonio defies Arsenio and arranges surgery, realizing he is in love with her.

Josephine befriends Teresa Rivas at a niece's bridal shower, and the two women begin a devoted lifelong romantic relationship.

Ranch worker Pascual Freire attempts to rape Violeta at the Birdcage; Torito intervenes and bodily throws Pascual off the farm.

Violeta moves to Sacramento and joins her brother's prefabricated housing company, Rustic Homes, earning her own independent commissions.

María Gracia dies of emphysema; Violeta later sees her mother's spirit in the Rustic Homes office and finally grieves properly.

Julián secretly transports both fleeing Nazis and Holocaust survivors in his plane, keeping a false and a real set of client records.

The strongest earthquake on record strikes; ten-year-old Nieves rushes into the burning house alone to drag the dying Teresa to safety.

Josephine finally agrees to marry José Antonio during their ship voyage home from Ireland after Teresa's death.

Fabian, needing money for a veterinary research lab, sells Violeta their annulment; she uses her gold savings to pay for it.

In Miami, Violeta sorts through Julián's documents and discovers he is doing secret work for the CIA against leftist movements.

Nieves is found unconscious from a heroin overdose; Roy saves her life and Julián has her forcibly admitted to a Miami rehab clinic.

Roy registers himself as Camilo's father and grants Violeta guardianship, allowing her to legally bring the newborn out of the United States.

Juan Martin flees a military coup in Argentina and seeks asylum at the Norwegian embassy, eventually resettling in Norway.

José Antonio dies of heart failure and dementia; Josephine, who battled cancer for years, follows him exactly one year later.

The country elects its first female president; Violeta meets with her multiple times and secures governmental support for the Nieves Foundation.

Behind the headline events of Violeta's life lie the relationships and decisions that quietly shaped her journey. The arrival of governess Josephine and her devoted relationship with Teresa Rivas bring progressive ideas into Violeta's household, while Torito's fierce loyalty proves essential at a dangerous moment in her youth. Violeta builds financial independence through her brother's Rustic Homes business and navigates grief through events like her mother's death and the earthquake that fatally injures Teresa. The annulment she finally buys from Fabian frees her legally, while sorting through Julián's documents in Miami reveals the moral emptiness of the man she once loved. As the military dictatorship eventually falls and Juan Martin finds refuge in Norway, Violeta's personal losses begin pointing her toward public purpose. The election of the country's first female president finally gives the Nieves Foundation the governmental support it needs to sustain Violeta's life's work.

The relationships and pivotal moments behind Violeta's story.

Arsenio posts armed guards at Camellia House and acquires a revolver, fearing social unrest from the influenza pandemic.

Josephine reveals her traumatic childhood and her lack of any real home to José Antonio when told she must return to England to die.

Violeta carves Torito a wooden cross engraved with both their names as a gift for his very first birthday celebration.

Violeta vehemently refuses José Antonio's suggestion that she attend a boarding school run by English missionaries, insisting on staying at Santa Clara.

Pía dies of cancer in Violeta's home; before passing, she predicts that Violeta will have a daughter.

Violeta discovers that Julián is secretly flying weapons and supplies for both Castro's rebels and the Batista-backed mafia simultaneously.

Violeta begins seeing psychiatrist Dr. Levy and, with his help, finally breaks off her long and emotionally destructive relationship with Julián.

Roy finds Nieves living sober and pregnant in a friend's home in Los Angeles; Violeta travels there and reconciles with her daughter.

Juan Martin takes Violeta to visit a poor neighborhood where the Socialist president is revered, forcing her to reconsider her conservative views.

Violeta disguises Juan Martin as a woman with false papers and smuggles him out of Sacramento toward safety at Santa Clara.

Norwegian diplomat Harald Fiske arrives at Santa Clara seeking use of the telephone; Violeta and Facunda ask him to stay for safety.

Julián casually mentions the cave of bodies, revealing to Violeta that he knew about Torito's capture and Juan Martin's fate all along.

Roy dies of cancer in a Los Angeles hospital; shortly after, Violeta begins meeting with women's groups and launches the Nieves Foundation.

Camilo is arrested for spraying anti-government graffiti after running away from school; Harald contacts the US ambassador to secure his release.

Harald dies suddenly in the middle of Violeta's 95th birthday party; she confronts her own mortality for the first time.

Violeta's life is shaped by a series of pivotal moments that shift her understanding of herself and the world around her. From carving a cross for Torito's first birthday to refusing boarding school, her early choices reveal a fierce independence that deepens over time. Discovering Julián's dangerous double dealings and eventually breaking free of him with a psychiatrist's help mark her slow emancipation from a destructive relationship. The reconciliation with Nieves in Los Angeles and Juan Martin's efforts to open his mother's eyes politically prepare Violeta for the harder revelations yet to come. When Julián casually mentions the cave of bodies and reveals his long-held knowledge of Torito's fate, Violeta's remaining illusions are shattered and she is driven into decades of purposeful activism. The deaths of Roy and then Harald, bookending her happiest years of love and purpose, bring Violeta at last to a clear-eyed acceptance of the end of her long and remarkable life.