 Marina Pinares, the wife of the president of a South American country, insists on being his vice-presidential running mate in the next election. She s no stranger to assassination to get what she wants, so some suspect she ll kill her own husband after the election to become president. In a series of flashbacks we see her rise to power: a party girl willing to sacrifice a friend s virtue to gain favor; the lover of a soldier she later tortures; the mistress of the military man she soon marries. The cult of the "Little Mother" has swept the country. She s always scheming. Even when she learns she has a fatal disease, she calculates how to leave a legacy in death.