1851/2 -- Lisbon
Emília de Sousa – 16 years old
(Prostitute at Dona Antónia’s brothel)
Other characters: Viscount Almeida Garrett, Dona Antónia, the owner, João Afonso de Sanha, Gaspar de Barros
1861/2 – Funchal, Madeira
Emília de Sousa = Rosalina de Barros – 26 years old
Married to Gaspar de Barros
Children Lopo, 5 years old and Francisco, 4 years old
Gaspar de Barros’s Mother – Dona Matilde
Empress of Austria’s (Sissi’s) Stay in Madeira.
Other characters: João Afonso de Sanha, Dozy, Doctor, Count of Carvalhal, and Photographer Vicente
Corte do Norte, Madeira
Rosalina’s flight to the north of the island
Meeting with João Afonso Sanha
Rosalina’s disappearance off a cliff
Funeral without a body
Gaspar de Barros marries Dozy
1885 – Lisbon
Emília de Sousa is the star actress of the National Theatre
Mistress of João Afonso Sanha
Lopo, 29 years old e Francisco, 28, years old watch the performance by their “supposed” mother.
Francisco sets up house with Olímpia, a woman of ill repute who
already has a grown up daughter.
Journey over the high seas. He dies on the journey.
1905 – Corte do Norte, Madeira Island
Emília de Sousa and João Afonso Sanha, at the end of their lives.
Retreats and rests at the Corte do Norte.
Rosalina/Emília’s grandchildren are:
Tristão of the “ladies”, who is a gambler who loses everything,
Águeda de Barros who has an incestuous passion for her brother.
Águeda discovers “terrible secrets” about her grandmother.
Tristão becomes involved with the maid Alice
and has a son: João de Barros.
Águeda burns down João Sanha’s chapel and commits suicide.
1945 – Funchal and Corte do Norte
João de Barros, son of Alice, the maid.
He is married to Margô, of German origin.
Passion by the maid Leopoldina for João de Barros at the Corte do Norte.
1965 – Funchal and Corte do Norte
Leopoldina helps Rosamund, youngest daughter of João de Barros to investigate great-great-grandmother Rosalina’s secret.
Grandmother Alice is against turning the main house into a tourist lodge,
Margô flies to London to meet her other daughters.
João de Barros dies.
Rosamund discovers the secret … |
