In the desert, the tombstones of Amadis and Amadis Jr. Nearby, the mansion where orphaned Erendira is the domestic slave and companion to her tyrannical grandmother. The two women are the sole survivors of a once-powerful dynasty of robber barons and smugglers. A litany of daily chores comes to a sudden end the night Erendira leaves the candelabra too close by the open window and a desert storm sets the curtains on fire. The mansion burns to the ground. As she sells the remains to passing traders, the grandmother vows that Erendira will have to repay her every peso of the loss. Erendira's only assets being her youth and beauty, the grandmother decides to sell the girl's virginity to the highest bidder. She then sets up a tent, in front of which an even longer line of men take their turn.

Erendira's fame soon becomes legend, and the grandmother announces that a mere eight years seven moths and eleven days will cancel the debt. But as fate has it, Ulises, son of a Dutch farmer and an Indian mother, falls in love with her, pleading with Erendira to plot her escape. The lovers are caught by the combined forces of a vengeful grandmother, Ulises’ father and the police chief. Eventually, Erendira finds refuge in a convent, learning to be a bride of Jesus. Bribed by the grandmother, a young man enters the convent and marries Erendira during the nuns’ Holy Communion. Once more the main attraction of the fairground tent show which has sprung up in the desert around the shrewd matriarch who buys immunity and influence, the padlocked Erendira becomes the gift for a night for the melancholy commandant of the nearby town. Ulises, in the meantime, has stolen three of his father's golden oranges, each containing a huge diamond. But Erendira does not want to escape and she challenges her lover to kill the grandmother. A birthday cake filled with rat poison gives the old woman even more unusually vivid dreams at night, while the only visible effects are the large tufts of hair clinging to her comb in the morning.