When 7-year-old Jocelyn Shaker is mysteriously abducted from a resort in the Colombian rainforest, her rich Columbian stepfather and American mother are accused of being involved.

In Colombia just after the Great War, an old man falls from a ladder; dying, he professes great love for his wife. After the funeral, a man calls on the widow – she dismisses him angrily. Flash back more than 50 years to the day Florentino Ariza, a telegraph boy, falls in love with Fermina Daza, the daughter of a mule trader.