SPOILERS!!!
The last chunk of the novel is the best part when the conflicts develop.
One event that has repercussions is when Luis goes to the vinyard, taking the marquesita with him, and they have a night of excesses. There is flamenco, dancing and drinking. The marquesita tries to seduce Rafael, but he turns her down without preambles, and Luis and his friends make mischief. One thing they do is to let a young bull out near Mari Cruz, startling them. After that night of overindulgence, Mari Cruz starts feeling sick, and her family think that it was the fright that caused it. Salvatierra visits the family, and since he has some knowledge of medicine, he tells them that what Mari Cruz has is consumption, and she eventually dies. Rafael is blamed for letting her boss run amok, and Luis is excused because he is the patron.
Luis, though, is affected by the rumours, and he decides to go and stay in his cousin's farm, where Sr Fermin and María Luz are. Then Luis starts feeling attracted to Maria de la Luz even though he tells himself that he should see her as a sister, the child he played with in his young days. Then one night he brings bottles of sherry from his cousin's winecellar, and everybody drinks too much, even María Luz. At some point Luis goes to find her; she is sleeping on the floor of her cottage, and when she opens her eyes, she thinks he is Rafael, and Luis uses her confusion to abuse her.
Then María Luz is too ashamed, and she tells Rafael that she wants to break up with him because she does not love him. Rafael is devastated and tells Fermín, her brother, what has happened and asks him to help him. Fermín goes to the farm to talk to María Luz, who refuses to tell him anything, but she eventually can't hide the truth and tells him everything. Fermín is shocked and thinks that his family's honour has been sullied and the only thing his sister can do is marry Luis. Mari Luz, though, says that she hates Luis and won't marry him.
Fermin goes to see Don Pablo and tells him what his cousin has done to his sister, hoping that he can have his support to force Luis to marry María Luz. Yet, Don Pablo's solution is to give him money for the young woman to enter a convent, and Fermin is totally aghast too. Don Pableo is nervous because of the uprising that is in the streets of the city. There is a crowd led by someone called El Madrileño, but we see that not everybody is convinced about the cause they defend. The crowd stands outside the prison, but when they are shot at, they leave, and as they walk the streets, they face those they think are rich. They end up killing a very young man.
Fermin runs into Luis, who is drunk, and he says that he wants to talk to him. They end up in a private room in the inn, and when Fermin demands reparation for what he has done to María Luz, Luis says that he is willing to get a house for María Luz and have her like many other rich men. Fermin is outraged, adn that leads to violence, and as he has Rafael's knife, he stabs him and kills him.
Fermin runs to his father and tells him everything, and learning about what María Cruz has done, he is ashamed and despises his daughter. The older man gives his son all the money he has, and Fermin runs away and in Gibraltar he embarks on a ship to Buenos Aires. His father is so ashamed that he can't continue working for Don Pablo, and he and María Luz move out of the farm and into a shack where they live poorly. Fermin writes to say that he is happy in Buenos Aires. Rafael also discovered what happened between Luis and María Luz, and he is so hurt that he decides to return to his life as a smuggler and a highwayman. The ending is happy for him and Maria Luz, because Fernando Salvatierra returns to Jerez and talks to him, and Rafael realises that he can forgive María Luz. So he goes to find her, and they decide to leave Jerez and live their love somewhere else.
As for the farmers, five men were executed for the events that happened, and then life continued as hard as it had been before.
I enjoyed the book, and even though there are certain ideas I do not agree with, I think it was a good account of the miserable life of peasants in the nineteenth century. I hadn't read anything by Blasco Ibañez before and I found his style attractive and beautiful.
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