A classic tragedy, it is loosely based on the true story of a 16th-century nobleman who, after being presumed killed in battle, returns to Portugal under Spanish rule, to the consternation of his wife who has since remarried.

The two lead a virtuous and happy existence, along with their frail young daughter, Maria de Noronha, perturbed only by the silent reproach of a loyal servant, Telmo Pais, the only one who still believes that his former master is alive and shall one day return.

While Maria and Manuel de Sousa Coutinho are away, Madalena is being settled by her brother-in-law, Frei Jorge, when they receive the visit of an old pilgrim from the Holy Land: he tells them that he was kept in captivity for many years and that he knows for a fact that Dom João is still alive.

[1] Garrett's Memória is sometimes compared to the preface of Victor Hugo's 1827 play Cromwell, now considered the manifesto of the Romanticism, in terms of importance as a declaration of aesthetic intentions of the incipient Romantic movement in Portugal.

[1] The first public showing, in the Salitre Theatre in the summer of 1847, was of a severely censured version, especially the end of Act I, considered a "diplomatic complication" with Spain: a contemporary article published in the Revista Universal Lisbonense described it as having turned "the most exemplary and admirable of our dramas into a shapeless monster".