A world unfolds: gigantic like the palace where Julius grows up, profound like the relationship between power and servitude within it, both frightening and exhilarating. For the beautiful nanny Vilma and the eerie jungle woman from the kitchen, the sly chauffeur Carlos, the laundry woman, and the gardener, Julius is the young master, while he is unchangeably "Darling" to Susan, his mother, whom he loves obsessively and who eludes him behind a veil of enchantment. His father died early, his older brothers hardly notice Julius, and he can only confide in his sister Cinthia. But Cinthia dies, and this loss remains a wound he cannot even speak of, for Susan is already busy accompanying her elegant second husband Juan Lucas to the golf course, the country club, and the other meeting places of high society.