In 1936, Madariaga is an 80-year-old patriarch of a large Argentinian cattle ranch. He has two grandsons - Julio, son of the French son-in-law Marcelo, and Heinrich, son of the German Karl. Heinrich returns home from studying in Germany to reveal he has become a Nazi. Madariaga slaps Heinrich and predicts that the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (Conquest, War, Pestilence, and Death) will soon devastate the earth; he runs outside into a storm with visions of the four horsemen and then dies in Julio's arms.