The troubled story of the Churruca family, a noble lineage of brave seamen, descendants of Cosme Damián Churruca, the Spanish hero of the Battle of Trafalgar; from the Spanish-American War (1898) to the end of the Spanish Civil War (1936-39). (In 1950, a new cut of the film was released with less ideological depth and ten minutes shorter.)
The wealthy father of a young girl who has a relationship with a boy who has just won a waltzing contest employs him in a factory in order to make him a profitable man.
A Dutch sailing ship finds the wreckage of a Spanish mail ship, which has collided with an iceberg. Inside, the bodies of a man and a woman are found embraced.
