Shanti Andía, a veteran sailor, puts together the fragments of a personal diary that he has written through years of tribulations: his childhood in the Basque Country, his youth in the lands of Cádiz, and his many adventures and misadventures as a ship captain.
Ángela, a young orphan studying at a school abroad, decides to spend the Christmas holidays in Madrid, at the home of her guardian and closest relative, an unmarried lawyer with a somewhat dissipated life.
A poor composer sells his songs to a music publisher who attributes them to his son, who sells them to a famous singer. Seeking the son, the musician's daughter will unexpectedly find a job as secretary to the singer, disguised as an unattractive and authoritative woman who effectively controls his careless lifestyle.
Two sisters living with their aunt in a mountain village are fond of a writer whom they have the chance to meet, both of them falling in love with him. When he proposes to one sister, not wanting to hurt the other she is ready to renounce.
An orphan, taken in at the home of unscrupulous people who intend to use her in a shady business, flees with her cat and her canary. Accustomed by necessity, she enters a dressmaker's house with the intention of stealing, but the treatment she is given makes her give up her efforts. However, when she leaves the object she had stolen, a servant discovers it and denounces her. When Nena knows the situation of the girl, she welcomes her as a maid. The orphan will help the mistress of the house to solve her emotional problems.
The young Candelas, seduced and abandoned by Arturo, an unscrupulous womanizer, meets two soldiers, Tiburcio and Angelillo, who, in order to help the girl out of her predicament, organize a musical recital to raise money.