Adela is the sheltered daughter of successful Dr. Maximo Sevilla. She has spent her life crocheting alone in the big house, and disappointed her father for failing to qualify for a career in law or medicine, and for lacking the confidence of her departed mother. Under the guidance of Aunt Paula, Adela vainly struggles to cultivate elegance, until she meets and falls for the charms of striking David Javier. The young woman’s spirit blooms in the courtship, only to be crushed by the cruel objections of her father who suspects David of mercenary motives. Yet the lovers map out their hopeful future. But when Adela reveals to David her deepest feelings about her father, their plans fall through. Dejected, Adela turns on her father and makes him pay for the misery she has experienced all these years.