Guido Carani, an engineer of noble descent, has just lost his son born to him by a chorus dancer, who, desperate, has become a nun. After a while he also loses his wife and daughter in a boating accident. Poor Guido is in despair, but soon he meets Lina, a woman who is a dead ringer for Luisa.
During the first Napoleonic expedition into Italy, Thibaud is seriously injured before being caught up in a mystery involving his wife, her rightful inheritance and his own daughter's happiness.
Northern Italian Stefano marries sweetheart Maria by proxy while working abroad in Canada. However, she is mistakenly accused of her sister's crime of abandoning her own child and, when Stefano finds out, he decides to call off their marriage.
The tragic love story between Guido, the owner of a marble quarry and Luisa, the humble daughter of one of his employees, ends up in her giving birth to a baby boy. Giulio's mother is against them: at first she takes her son abroad with an excuse and then has her grandson kidnapped making Luisa think the boy died in a fire.
