A Woman Without Love 1952

Set in Mexico, the film opens in the home of Don Carlos Montero, Julio Villarreal, an upper-class antiques dealer, and his wife Rosario, Rosario Granados. Their son, Carlitos Jaime Calpe, faces a harsh accusation of theft at his school. When he comes home, his father scolds him severely and locks him in his room. Carlitos runs away, but is found by an engineer who works in the forest, Julio Mistral, Tito Junco. Julio returns the boy to his parents, and Don Carlos expresses deep gratitude. The engineer soon becomes a close friend to the Montero family, though in private he wonders aloud why Rosario married such a stern, older man.

One day, Rosario and Carlitos visit Julio in the forest while Don Carlos stays in town. Carlitos enjoys a day of fishing for trout. In a private conversation, Rosario reveals she is unhappy because she married for money rather than love. Moved by her plight, Julio sympathizes and the two fall in love. Julio suggests they run away together to Brazil; Rosario agrees, but decides to wait after Don Carlos suffers a severe heart attack. He survives, and Rosario refuses to leave, unwilling to separate Carlitos from his father.

The story skips forward roughly twenty years. Carlos, Joaquín Cordero the older son, and his younger brother Miguel, Xavier Loyá, have just completed medical school. News arrives that Julio Mistral has died, and the will shocks everyone: he leaves all his money to Miguel. Though not stated outright, Carlos soon pieces together that Miguel is Julio’s illegitimate son. He refuses Miguel’s invitation to share the inheritance, choosing instead to use his portion to build a new clinic and to turn bitter toward Rosario and his newly discovered half-brother.

Miguel becomes engaged to a woman whom Carlos suspects is after his wealth, creating tension within the family. At Miguel’s wedding, Don Carlos Montero collapses and dies from a heart attack. The film reaches a turning point as Rosario confirms that Julio was the one true love of her life, and Miguel is furious at the revelation. The siblings confront their emotions, and Rosario remains steadfast in her sentiment, leading to a restrained reconciliation as the matriarch grieves. Carlos then departs for the tropics to pursue research, and the final image shows Rosario placing a picture of Julio on her mantelpiece.