Isabelle Allende's bestselling romantic novel with dashes of politics and 'magic realism' set in Chile, is turned into an international co-production epic filmed in Portugal with an all-star cast. The story follows the lives and loves of several generations of the Trueba family: Jeremy Irons plays the head of the family, ageing thirty years in the film, and during that time having relationships with various women, including a sight-seer (Meryl Streep), and becoming an extremely right-wing politician. His daughter (Winona Ryder), meanwhile, has a passionate affair with her father's political rival (Antonio Banderas).