Arauca knows no mercy. Only the strongest can survive here. At the beginning of the 20th century the young lawyer Santos returns to this wild, hostile region to the ranch of his ancestors. What he finds there are bloody family feuds and dogged wars between neighbors In the midst of this chaos he falls in love with the beautiful Marisela - and is soon torn back and forth between her and her unscrupulous, seductive and dangerous mother Dona Barbara. And Santos sinks into a vortex of passion, greed, violence and desire.