Lawyer Santos returns from Caracas to take charge of his lands dominated by Doña Bárbara, a woman who was raped in her youth by her cousin Lourenzo, with whom she has a daughter, Marisela. Doña Barbara meddles with witchcraft, has driven Lourenzo to drink, and now plans to bewitch Santos with whom she is in love. Violence is rampant throughout the region; meanwhile Santos takes the law into his own hands and thinks of keeping Marisela.