Educated by governesses and private tutors,[2] she married Gustavo Balmaceda Valdés at the age of 17, against the will of her family.

[6] After her husband returned to Santiago, he discovered Wilms Montt was engaging in an affair with his cousin, Vicente Zañartu Balmaceda.

Because of it, the men of the Balmaceda Valdés family held a 'family court' in 1915, and decided Wilms Montt's punishment would be to spend time at the Convento de la Preciosa Sangre.

[8] The city's cosmopolitan intellectual circle had a positive effect on her, she became acquainted with writers Victoria Ocampo, Jorge Borges, and feminist-fashionista "Pele" Pelegrina Pastorino.

After an admirer, Horacio Ramos Mejía, committed suicide in Wilms Montt's home, she left for New York City during World War I, but, after being accused of being a German spy, she was deported to Spain.