El secreto de Puente Viejo (English: The Secret of Puente Viejo) was a Spanish soap opera produced by Boomerang TV that originally aired from 23 February 2011 to 20 May 2020 on Antena 3.
Synopsis First season (Pepa, la partera) The story begins in 1902, with Pepa, a poor and illiterate but intelligent adolescent orphaned girl with great knowledge in herbal medicine and obstetrics. Pepa had been lusted over and impregnated by her landlord Carlos Castro, giving birth to a son and then thrown out of the house and tricked into believing that her child was stillborn. She finds a shelter in Raimundo Ulloa (Ramón Ibarra) inn where she befriends his daughter Emilia and is hired to be an obstetrician for Francisca Montenegro (María Bouzas), a wealthy landlady whose pregnant daughter-in-law Angustias is mentally unstable. Both Angustias and Francisca begin hating Pepa when Francisca's son Tristán falls in love with Pepa. Pepa holds the blame for Angustias' baby's death while actually, the real culprit is Angustias herself. Eventually, the truth is revealed and the latter is sent to a mental institution where she commits suicide. Later, Pepa finds out that Tristan's adopted son Martín is her long-lost son, taken away by Carlos who was Tristán's adopted brother, who later died in a fire with all his household. However, he is revealed to have survived and returns, kidnapping his son. The villagers find out that Carlos is dead but do not find the child and consider him also dead. Pepa finds her real mother, a wealthy landlady who was forced to give her illegitimate newborn child away, as she was also underage, and her father is Francisca's deceased husband. It is also revealed that Raimundo and Francisca were lovers and Tristan is their son, so he's not Pepa's brother. After many trials, Pepa and Tristan finally get married and their daughter Aurora is born. Unfortunately, Pepa has a difficult pregnancy and dies in childbirth. When she learns that Tristán has been kidnapped while travelling, Pepa goes searching for him. Tristán manages to escape the goons and meets Pepa in the mountains near Puente Viejo. There, Pepa delivers with the help of Tristan but is very weak and unable to get up. After a tearful farewell, Tristan takes the newborn to the village.
Second season (La verdad de Gonzalo) in 1919, Gonzalo (Jordi Coll), the new priest, comes to the town with a single purpose, to find his real family, it is Martín, the son of Pepa and Carlos who they left for dead in the first stage, he fell in love with María, raised in her godmother Francisca's home, has grown up to be a noble lady from the upper class who becomes a love interest of Fernando (Carlos Serrano) Pepa's step-brother's son, named Olmo and soon they get engaged. Meanwhile, Tristan is depressed after Pepa's demise, and does not communicate with anybody, except for his father Raimundo, his sister Emilia, his niece María, his brother-in-law Alfonso and his maidservant Rosario. He did not want to look after Aurora, as she reminded him of Pepa and sent her to a boarding school in Switzerland when she was 7 years old. Candela (Aída de la Cruz), a lonely confectioner who escaped her cruel husband, enters Tristan's life, making him happy again and they fall in love. It is revealed that Gonzalo is Pepa's long-lost son Martín and he reunites with his family. However, he finds out about Fernando's cruel and violent and together with Maria's adoptive aunt and maidservant of the Montenegros Mariana tries to stop his wedding with María but fails. Fernando, who's madly jealous, molests his wife before and after marriage and Martín is determined to save her. Tristán finds out that Francisca killed Pepa by getting her poisoned during pregnancy and disowns his mother.
Third season (La familia unida) Meanwhile, Aurora (Victoria Camps Medina) returns after graduating boarding school and Candela helps Tristán making up with his daughter. It turns out the girl is not Aurora, but her friend Jacinta who got mad and stole the real Aurora's life, sending her to India. The real Aurora (Ariadna Gaya) manages to return and with the help of Martín and María exposes Jacinta who flees. Tristán reunites with his children but his happy living ever after is turned into a tragic end when Jacinta returns and murders him on his wedding with Candela. Before his wedding, Tristán decides to forgive Francisca and reconcile with his mother, but she refuses. After the wedding, Jacinta shoots Candela, but the projectile hits Tristán, who was hugging her, and he dies. Francisca visits his grave and cries in pain for the loss of her son.
Fourth season (Los hermanos contra Francisca) After the unsuccessful attempted murder of Candela which was Jacinta's purpose in the first place, Jacinta flees again and poisons Puente Viejo's water supplies, causing a mortal epidemics. Martin and Aurora manage to get the antidote and save the village but Jacinta ends up committing suicide in a furious rage after realising her deeds. It is revealed that after Tristán left dying Pepa in the mountains taking newborn Aurora to the village, Pepa woke up, delivered Aurora's fraternal twin Bosco and was dragged by somebody after losing cautious again. Tristán never found her corpse. It is also never revealed what really happened to her. She gave the second baby to a random woman passing by.
After Fernando's numerous unsuccessful attempts to kill Martin, who is expecting a child with Maria, he injures himself badly end ends up in a wheelchair. Martín and María look after him until his recovery in exchange for a divorce. Fernando does not keep his word and kidnaps María and Martín's daughter, Esperanza, but eventually, all his crimes are caught and he is sent to jail. However, Francisca turns against María when she finds out about the latter's pregnancy and plans to get rid of her goddaughter and take the child from her. Having given priesthood up, Martín marries María. After Francisca's unsuccessful plot to murder Martin, Maria gets furious and tries to kill her godmother to put an end to her evil and cruel deeds but is stopped by Martín. To protect their daughter Esperanza, Martín and María enact their death with the help of their relatives and escape abroad. They live happily ever after in Cuba with Esperanza.
Fifth season (El chico de los tres lunares) Francisca takes Bosco under her patronage after he saves her life and eventually his origins are revealed due to three moles on his back, possessed by Pepa and all her descendants. Bosco and Ines, Candela's niece who works as a maid in Montenegro Mansion, fall in love but Francisca gets Bosco married to a woman from the upper class named Amalia. However, Ines falls pregnant with Bosco's child. Amalia, who is childless, also fakes pregnancy and when Inés gives birth, she steals the latter's child telling her it died after birth and presenting it as her own. At the same time, Severo Santacruz (Chico García) arrives in the town accompanied by Carmelo Leal (Raúl Peña), his best friend, together they will be in charge of making Francisca pay for the death of Severo's parents since she killed them in the past. After Conrado's death, Aurora finds love in Lucas, but in the wedding she leaves him and travels to Paris.
Season six (El reencuentro de los mellizos) Eventually, the truth is revealed and Inés reunites with her son and with Bosco. Amalia dies in an accident and Bosco and Ines get married. Unfortunately, Inés falls ill from diabetes and dies. Bosco is heartbroken but promises himself not to repeat his father's mistake. He hires a nanny for his son Beltran, Berta and soon they fall in love. But Berta turns out to be mental and attempts to kill Francisca when the latter tries to expose Berta's psychological state to Bosco. While protecting herself from Berta, Francisca inadvertently shoots Bosco and he dies. Bosco's last wish is for Beltran to be raised by Aurora. Initially, Francisca refuses to hand the baby over but then she decides not to repeat her mistake with Tristán and lets her love for Bosco triumph over her ego and hatred for Aurora. Severo and Carmelo devise a plan through which they make Francisca lose all her money and be forced to beg with Raimundo, her longtime love and Mauricio (Mario Zorrilla), her right hand and the only one who did not abandon her when she lost her money. Severo and Carmelo find Sol in Madrid, she is Severo's sister, employed as a prostitute and take her to Puente Viejo. Initially, Sol is scared and rebellious but soon manages to adapt to her new life, finding new friends in the village, like Doctor Lucas Moliner, who falls in love with her but their love has to go through some trials as it turns out Sol is married to her former employer Eliseo. After some twists and turns, Eliseo and Sol are divorced and she marries Lucas.
Seventh season (La época de Los Manantiales) After Bosco's death, Aurora sells her home mansion to the Mella Family. But hardly soon arrived at the village, the Mellas tragically die in a fire accidentally caused by the family's children. Beatriz (Giulia Charm), the mute daughter of the family is the only survival. Hernando dos Casas, a wealthy but distanced landlord arrives at the village to be the girl's custodian. Soon after that, his wife Camila whom he has never seen, as they had married in different countries, he married to get custodian rights over Beatriz arrives from Cuba. Camila's character is her husband's complete opposite: she's kind and caring and soon wins her adopted daughter's heart over while Hernando provokes only fear in the girl despite his efforts of befriending her. Camila even manages to help Beatriz regain her voice. Elías Mato (Jaime Lorente), a chemist working for Hernando, falls in love with Camila and tries to separate her from her husband but eventually, the spouses grow closer to each other. As love between them arises, they have to overcome the misunderstandings created by Elías between them and learn how to trust each other. It is later revealed that Hernando is not the person he seems to be, he looks cold and heartless from the outside but is warm-hearted and caring from the inside. A tragedy had struck his life in the past that changed his manner: he had lost his family in a fire. However, one of his children survived: Beatriz, who had partly lost her memory and also her voice. She is scared from Hernando as he reminds her of the person who had set the fire. As Hernando had known somebody was plotting against him, he had sent his daughter to live with the Mellas, who were family friends of his, to protect her. As Camila finds out the truth, she proves Hernando's innocence in front of Beatriz and eventually the three of them live together like a real family. Later, the family faces new struggles as Beatriz is involved in a love triangle with Matías, Emilia's adopted son and Ismael, her father's new business partner.
Severo gives his revenge towards Francisca up, settles down in the village and marries Candela with whom he acquires a son named after his loyal friend Carmelo who also finds love and settles in the village.
Cristóbal Garrigues arrives to the town, he is one of the sons of Salvador Castro, and an army's intendant who has come to take revenge on Francisca for snatching her father's inheritance, since Francisca kept the inheritance of Salvador, but thanks to Severo and Carmelo they get the army to send Cristóbal to Morocco.
Sol dies when Severiano, the first love of Emilia, poisons her by mistake wanting to kill Alfonso, who was close to Sol. Emilia is guilty of murder, Severiano has returned to ask for money and go to America, but thanks to Maria's return, they get Severiano to die and for Emilia to leave the jail. Lucas marches desolate from the town with his son.
Eighth season (La sombra de Garrigues)