With Neruda's help Marxist Allende has won the 1970 election. Labbe apart,
Isla Negra celebrates victory. Rosa catches Mario and Beatriz making love
and forces them to marry, and then to work in her café, now benefiting from
the short-lived economic boom. Jealousy soon sours the newlyweds' love, and
when Labbe makes a pass at Beatriz, Mario attempts to knife him. As the
couple become reconciled, Neruda, appointed Chilean ambassador to France
and homesick, asks them to record the sounds of Isla Negra.

Aided by Labbe, Pinochet's soldiers seize power. Ignoring the pregnant Beatriz's
pleas, Mario takes telegrams from Cosme to Neruda, now ill and returned to the
village. To avenge himself, Labbe kills Cosme and arrests Mario, who has naively
described himself in his notebook as a communist. Rosa realizes that Mario will
die in jail and she and Beatriz move on in the hope of a better life for Beatriz's child.

CD2 Act Two