Already at the age of eighteen Florentino Ariza fell in love with her, with her proud walk and the heavy braid on her back. He courted her in poetic letters, won her attention for a short time, but then lost her to Doctor Juvenal Urbino.

Nothing in the world is more difficult than love. Fermina Daza and Doctor Juvenal Urbino experience this every day in their more than fifty years of marriage. And no one experiences it more painfully than Fermina's eternal admirer Florentino Ariza, who waited for her for 51 years, 9 months and 4 days. In poetic letters, he courted her, won her, lost her again, but never stopped loving her. While Fermina led a bourgeois life at the side of her husband, a highly respected doctor, Florentino achieved great prosperity. He is a tireless womanizer, but in his heart he has always remained faithful to Fermina, and on the evening of her husband's funeral he declares his love for her once again.