In the early 1950s, Elisa and her mother Raquel leave behind their humble home in Temuco and go to Isla Negra to move in with Pablo Neruda in his big house, which looks like an underwater cliff full of objects. Little Elisa spies on his poems and his love affairs while Raquel works in silence as his maid. The arrival of Neruda's wife, Delia del Carril, an aristocratic Argentine painter so stunning that she seems never to age, breathes new life into the house. However, Raquel harbours an important secret.