The illegitimate son of a rich land owner and a rather poor woman from the village. He lived the first years of his life in a manor of the father where he was treated as an ordinary worker, he suffered from famine and frequently was punished by a manager. At 14 years the priest from the village sends him to a capital college for orphans. With assiduous work and study he gets a trade of surgeon. He devotes himself to needs of the poor till his father, whose lawful children and wife died many years ago, calls him in his death hour to accept him as a son. Manuel is resolute, courageous, brave, magnanimous. He is laconic, but in depth of the soul gentle and loving. As he didn't have a real family now he passionately wishes to have a loving wife and children. He hates aristocrats whom he think hypocritical and banal. He falls in love with Matilde and, believing, that she also loves him, marries her. From this moment begin all his misfortunes.