This epic Spanish biopic chronicles the life of Cervantes, Spain's great novelist, playwright and poet, during the 16th-century, when as a young man he goes to Italy to become a soldier for the Pope. Later he helps the Pope's emissary wage war against the Spanish Moors. His exploits win him great favor. He falls in love with a famous Italian courtesan and she with him. Unfortunately, the Pope splits them apart with his newest decree which demands that all prostitutes leave the city. Upset, Cervantes goes to fight in the famed sea battle of Lepanto and comes back a hero. Later he is captured by Barbary pirates and ransomed by Trinitarian friars.

A work of Valle-Inclán, the story takes place in Galicia in the early twentieth century. To escape poverty, the wife of a sacristan uses a hydrocephalic child as a sideshow attraction. This causes a confrontation with her sister-in-law.

A former singer lives alone with her fortune - and with her nephew, Fernando, a low character to whom she refuses to lend more money. Elisa leaves prison and starts a new life as a personal attendant to the aging singer, using her knowledge as a former nurse - a profession she can not return to. Fernando meets Elisa, and together they plan to poison the lonely woman, and use her money abroad. They plan their alibis well. But those who kill by the sword will perish by the sword.