The Gipsy Heiress

SYNOPSIS

“The Gipsy Heiress” tells the tale of a gipsy girl who suddenly inherits a major fortune

Duarte Alvarenga is an unfulfilled man. He has fortune and a model family, but this does not fill the emptiness he has been feeling for the past twenty years. His first wife died under tragic circumstances and a few months later his baby girl was kidnapped.  Duarte climbed the highest mountains to find his daughter, but as time moved on his hope waned. Meanwhile, he married Madalena Alvarenga who always helped him in his quest and they had two children: Carlota Alvarenga and Pipo Alvarenga.  The man who was convicted for kidnapping the baby, but who always claimed his innocence gives Duarte a photo of a girl who looks very much like his first wife and tells him to find her in Mexico. She will be the key to unveil the mystery behind the kidnapping but before offering up a name, he dies, poisoned.

Mexico

General Emiliano Rivera will most likely be the next Mexican President. He’s knee deep in a relentless fight against the drug cartels. Duarte, a friend of the general’s, travels to Mexico for the man’s daughter’s wedding, Beatriz Rivera, who is to marry Joaquim Villalobos, the eldest son of Sancho Villalobos, a Galician businessman who is also Duarte’s partner. Sancho has several business dealings in Galicia, associated with the production of bivalve molluscs and a transport company.

During the wedding, Duarte spots the girl from the photograph. She is Portuguese and her name is Alexa Torres. She works for an NGO to help emigrants who try to make it across the border to the United States. She is a friend of the Rivera family and the future President’s right hand, as well as his secret mistress.

Yet before Duarte manages to speak to her, a violent attack during the wedding reception causes casualties, including Emiliano and several members of his team. Alexa is found holding a weapon and becomes a fugitive.

Meanwhile, a girl from the south finds herself arriving in the city to reunite with her father, who works at a hotel kitchen. Her name is Luz, and she is a gipsy of exquisite beauty, with light eyes and blonde hair. Her father is Ramón Garcia, a gipsy of Portuguese origin who has travelled the world and is now trying to make it to the United States to find work.

Alexa was going to help them, but now it seems she’s the one in need of help. Ramón hides her out in his home. She tells him Emiliano had a list with public figures linked to drug trafficking and astounding evidence. Finding this list is the only way to prove Alexa’s innocence but Ramón does not have the means to break the tight police line. He is identified as an accomplice to the attack and becomes a fugitive. Through Alexa’s contacts, he and his daughter illegally board a cargo ship heading to Portugal.

Duarte and Alexa’s paths cross again. He asks her about his daughter’s whereabouts. Alexa tells him she will only be able to help him if she’s free. And in order to find his daughter, Duarte teams up with the woman he believes is a killer. The woman who killed his friend. Inevitably, he falls in love with her. Alexa tells him about Emiliano’s list and he agrees to help her. Their undercover investigation leads them to Caetana Rivera, the assassinated general’s wife. She is a public figure who is adored by her people and a staunch supporter of her husband. But this is all for show. In fact, Caetana is linked to the drug cartel that killed Emiliano. She framed Alexa to deflect the Police’s attention, thereby exacting revenge on her rival.

Meanwhile, back in Portugal…

Luz arrives with her dad at their hometown, which she never knew. Ramón has relatives in a gipsy clan in Minho, headed by his father, Miro Garcia. Ramón left alone with Luz almost twenty years ago. Few people know the reason why. Twenty years back, Ramón and Soraia were a young couple. Soraia couldn’t bear children and so they took in a baby they found. The child was no other than Duarte Alvarenga’s daughter. Following the death of Duarte’s first wife, Madalena, who carries the secret of her past life, made her way into his home and his life. She was ambitious and set on taking over the fortune, but the baby got in her way. As such, she simulated the baby’s kidnap and dumped her in a river.

Yet Ramón and Luz’s return does not go to plan. Scorned by his own people, who don’t want to harbour a criminal, only Luz stands by his side. She believes his father is innocent and is willing to do anything to keep him out of prison. The man who helps her is Vicente Villalobos, Sancho Villalobos, Duarte’s Galician’s business partner’s youngest son. The ties between the two families will be tightened by the latent love between Vicente and Carlota. He is a lawyer, on diplomatic posting to the Spanish Embassy in Mexico, which is where he met Luz. He lost track of her, but now they reunite at a gypsy feast. While Ramón is in jail, Vicente and Luz become quite close and from their partnership an overwhelming love is born. But there is an obstacle standing in the way of their love and he goes by the name of Roni.

Roni Rana is a traditional gipsy. His marriage was arranged when he was ten years old and he’s stuck to the commitment. The girl whose hand he is promised is Luz, whom he idolizes, despite not having seen her for a long time. Now that Luz is back, he hopes to marry her and is a ferocious opponent for Vicente. And he has the weapons to fight him.

Our heroes are up against an octopus with tentacles on both sides of the pond. Duarte will find Alexa again in Galicia. She holds the secret that will bring him to his lost daughter.

Luz, who is chased by the ever ambitious Madalena, falls prey to a human trafficking network from which she will later manage to escape. She finds out Madalena ordered her kidnap and decides to expose her. She finds her way into the Alvarenga family home as Maria do Carmo Alvarenga, Duarte’s mother’s assistant. She is far from imagining that this is indeed her home. And that this family is her own family.

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