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In order to hide her past, Emilia de Sousa now calls herself Rosalina de Barros by marriage, or Baroness Madalena do Mar, through a title of property. Her marriage to João de Barros, produces two children, Lopo, 5, and Francisco, 4. The unusual behaviour of the Princess Elisabeth of Austria (Ana Moreira) who has come to spend the winter in Madeira to cure her sicknesses, radically transforms Rosalina’s life. She considers herself to be extraordinarily physically like Sissi, and decides to imitate her hairstyle, her extravagant outfits and her tics.

She has her portrait taken at the photographer Vicente (Vicente Jorge Silva) with the same clothes as her, and even misleads the Count of Carvalhal (Miguel Monteiro)But when the empress departs from the island after four months, Rosalina feels crestfallen. João de Barros’s mother, Dona Matilde (Laura Soveral) thinks that her daughter-in-law is no longer the same person, that she has gone insane or even that someone had switched places with her. The doctor (Rui Morrison) advices papaya juice and a change of airs. And Rosalina doesn’t need much convincing. Before the time of the “season” (beginning of summer), she abandons husband and children and flees to the Corte do Norte, and her behaviour are no less extravagant than that of Sissi, dragging with her in her follies her cousin João Sanha (Ricardo Aibéo), who is still fascinated by her.

Finally, on a very windy day, she disappears at the top of a cliff, inventing a mystery that will last for a hundred years. Her body is never found, and the funeral takes place without a body. Gaspar de Barros returns to Funchal for good, and marries his cousin Dozy (Maya Booth) to the joy of all concerned.

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Just like Rosalina de Sousa (probably herself, after staging her own “suicide”, after hurling herself from the cliffs of the Corte do Norte to the theatres of continental Portugal), the beautiful Emília de Sousa became a great actress. At the height of her career she loved João Sanha again, but now the way a whore loves a gambler.

When her “children”, Lopo (António Pedro Cerdeira) and Francisco(Graciano Dias), now adults, wait for her one day at the stage door to give her “wax camellias”, she pretends not to recognise them, with extraordinary harshness. João Sanha is the most romantic character in this film project.Tall, thin, elegant and with piercing pale eyes, he has always lived according to the happiness of Emília/Rosalina.

As we know, Lopo and Francisco are the children of Gaspar de Barros and Rosalina de Sousa, and were very young when their mother disappeared. Lopo has always thought that his mother was a mental patient who had committed suicide. A case of hysteria. Francisco resolved to fall in love with the memories of his mother. He locked himself in the Corte do Norte for a year making an inventory, and discovered very little. Later on, for obscure reasons, he moved away from his brother and went to live in continental Portugal. He enjoyed an easy life without attachments.

He fell in love with and went to live with Olímpia (Maria João Pinto), whose face seemed to be from a painting by Klimt, but who had a shady background and already had a grown up daughter. Francisco always waited at the stage door with his bunch of wax camellias to give to the great Emília de Sousa and receive some sort of sign. He never got one. One night he hit Olímpia, who cried hugging her daughter, and the next day, in a state of fever, he said goodbye to his brother and sailed to Brazil. He was lost, and he knew it. He would die one year, having returned with his health destroyed and death in his soul.

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The children of Lopo de Barros, grandchildren of Rosalina, are called Tristão (das Damas) and Águeda (Ana Moreira), and are 26 and 25 years old respectively. They spend more time at the Corte do Norte than in Funchal, because as the heirs to their grandparents’ fortune they decide not to have any profession or useful activity. For Tristão (Marcello Urgeghe), “the ladies (as damas) were his harem of 52 cards. Luck, the honoured lady but with an evil temper, was his greatest passion.” Águeda’s passion was without doubt her brother. He was her escort and squire, and she nurtured an incestuous passion for him.

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João de Barros (Rogério Samora) is a tragic character. Married to Margô (Lígia Roque) , a lady of German origin, who gave him five daughters. The most rebellious one and most like her great-great-grandmother is Rosamund. When Margô married João de Barros he was already a rich man. His mother, Alice (Diana Costa e Silva), the former maid, was always suspicious of the origin of his fortune. When João de Barros settled in at the Corte do Norte at the age of 40 in order to investigate the mystery of Rosalina (Ana Moreira), he came to no conclusion. The beautiful, young, lascivious housekeeper Leopoldina (MargaridaVila-Nova) had an overwhelming passion for him.

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At the age of sixty, João de Barros, now indifferent to Margô, indifferent to Leopoldina(Custódia Gallego) , for some time carries on a close relationship with his favourite daughter Rosamund, who is a perfect portrait of Rosalina. He died sadly, physically disabled and alone, of a heart attack, naked in the bathtub.
One hundred years after the mystery of Rosalina de Sousa’s disappearance, the beautiful Rosamund is the key character in the novel and in this film.