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Set in La Guaira between 1924 and 1954, it tells the life of the famous Venezuelan painter Armando Reverón.

In 1856, a whaler arrives in Paita, Peru; on board is Herman Melville, who is astonished to learn that Manuela Sáenz, for eight years the lover of Simón Bolívar, is still alive. He calls on her, and although she will not talk to him about her life, his visit sends her to her chest of Bolívar's letters. As she reads them, the sepia-toned present gives way to flashbacks in color: she meets 'the Liberator' in 1822, becomes his lover, and also becomes a colonel in his military movement to realize the 'Gran Colombia', one nation across South America. As plague (brought by the ship) closes in on Manuela's household, so does her tempestuous story move toward Bolívar's betrayal and death.

Initially, it's the recreation of what the American territory would have been like before the arrival of the Spaniards: we see the indigenous people who dedicate themselves to art, fishing, children who play and the community that celebrates its rituals, dances and beliefs. With the arrival of Christopher Columbus everything changes.

An homage to the painter Armando Reveron, this is the story of a contemporary painter who chooses to live in isolation in a hut alongside the Caribbean Sea. Along with Claudia, his muse, he works using nature as his source of inspiration. Alfredo, a friend and art connoisseur, forces the painter to create a series of paintings for an exhibition in New York that aims at achieving fame and putting him on the contemporary art market. The film presents a tropical perspective of the dilemma between artist and the commercializing of his work.