Juan de Dios, from a poor working-class background, is a cantina performer in Seville, singing and dancing with his partner Lola. They have a contentious professional and personal relationship, her jealous self cannot tolerate his constant flirting. He really aspires to be a serious opera singer, under the tutelage of Estaban. Once the greatest impresario in Spain himself, Estaban lost everything because of the same reckless behavior that Juan now exhibits, behavior which Estaban is trying to quell in Juan. Estaban's plan is to get one of his old contacts in Madrid, an impresario, to manage Juan's career to get him serious singing gigs, leading to that fame and fortune Esteban once used to have. It's love at first sight when Juan meets Maria Consuelo Vargas. What he initially doesn't know is that their meeting was by no accident; she, a postulant at St. Agustín convent who just escaped from that life, had been mesmerized by him and his singing every time she saw him as she peered over the convent wall to the cantina. As she tells him that she has no home, he takes her in. When he learns that she used to be a nun in training, he has to decide whether to marry her or try to get her back to the convent. Factored into his decision: her brother, Army Captain Enrique Vargas, who believes she is destined to be married to God; jealous Lola; and his and Estaban's own aspirations for his singing career.