By the fire in the abandoned Angel of Mist, Bea recounts how the house was built in 1899 for Salvador Jausà, a wealthy colonial returnee whose household scandalized Barcelona society: a silent American wife and a Cuban mulatto servant, Marisela, rumored to be both lover and sorceress. Within a month of moving in, both women were found dead, the walls smeared with blood, the garden’s angel statues mutilated, and Jausà discovered half-mad and physically ruined, leaving the case closed without real answers.

Years later, the damaged Jausà drew Ricardo Aldaya—an ambitious industrialist—into the house with talk of a “scientific and spiritual experiment.” Jausà hired early filmmaker Fructuós Gelabert to shoot film in near darkness to capture spirits, convinced the camera could trap souls. Chemical accidents and alcohol-tainted development produced vague shapes that Jausà interpreted as Marisela’s apparitions; Aldaya pretended to believe, using Jausà’s obsession to gain control over his money and legal powers.

One stormy night Jausà disappeared while handling a special roll of film. Aldaya had the footage recovered, watched it privately, then burned it, and paid Gelabert to forget what happened. Soon Aldaya’s family moved in; Penélope was born there, but the mansion resisted becoming “Villa Penélope,” filling family life with ominous disturbances, thefts, and dread. After young Jorge vanished inside the house and returned claiming a “black woman” foretold that the family’s women would die there—and after Mrs. Aldaya was later found dead on the predicted date—Aldaya finally tried to rid himself of the property as his fortune collapsed.

The house went unsold for years, passing through bankrupt companies and, after 1939, into the hands of a group whose executive director was Bea’s father, Mr. Aguilar. Bea admits she stole the key from her father’s office and brought Daniel there as a secret, believing coincidences—Daniel finding Carax at the Cemetery and their presence in the Aldayas’ house—fit an unseen design tied to Carax and Penélope.

In the present, Bea confronts Daniel with a sealed letter to her fiancé Pablo asking for a quick wedding and an escape from Barcelona, demanding Daniel tell her whether to send it. When Bea retreats into the rain, Daniel follows, takes the letter, and burns it in the fire; Bea clings to him, asking him not to let her fall. The two make love by the blaze, and Daniel fixes the afternoon in memory as the moment their relationship crosses into irreversible intimacy.