A rich enterprise wants to turn the port town of Pucusana into an exclusive tourist resort, sending their worker Estela to make a deal with the locals. The resistance of the locals and the insistence of the investors reach their peak when two fishermen find Estela mysteriously murdered. Leonardo Oviedo, Estela's partner, goes to the port to investigate the murder and finish the negotiations. This puts the entire port into a series of grisly murders.
While it flopped badly back then, it has gained a small fanbase over the years, partly due to being a prequel for La Gran Sangre.
This show provides examples of:
- All for Nothing: Leonardo is very determined to turn Pucusana into a resort, even if he has to manipulate the citizens for it. After finding out the killer was his own assistant and murdering him, he's forced to abandon the port, making all of his of struggle pointless.
- All Girls Want Bad Boys: Laura is between Nice Guy Ramiro and the Ladykiller in Love Tony, but it's clear she favors the latter more.
- All of the Other Reindeer: Anguila is treated as an outcast due to being mentally-handicapped, with only his sister and the crazy bum Zacarias being his closest friends.
- Amateur Sleuth: Tony, The Hero of the series, does his own investigation to assist his friend Leonardo.
- An Arm and a Leg: Madam Flora's death.
- Anyone Can Die: Like many slashers, a lot of the characters get killed over the course of the series. Tony, Leonardo, Laura, Huevera, Jose, Joaquin, Cuchillo and Minaya are the only major characters alive by the end of the finale.
- Big Bad: Ramos turns out to be the killer.
- Big Damn Heroes: El Brujo appears to incapacitate Ramos just as he is about to shoot Laura and Tony.
- Bittersweet Ending: The killer is dead and Tony and Leonardo manage to avenge their loved ones. Their victory is hard to celebrate in light of how many people died, and how the Big Bad arguably got what he wanted in the end, so Tony feels guilty about being unable to save more people. That said, Tony does take some comfort in knowing that the citizens of Pucusana are slowly getting back with their lives, and the start of his relationship with Laura.
- Boring, but Practical: When he isn't using guns, the killer resorts to a knife for less noisy kills.
- Camp Gay: Huevera and his boyfriend Pepe. Basically every gay man in the cast is effeminate except for Ramos, and this causes conflict because's he's spent all his life dealing with his own internalized homophobia and shame to the point he becomes a serial killer.
- Chivalrous Pervert: Tony is always being involved (or at least trying to) with ladies, but won't let it get in the way finding the killer.
- Cool Old Lady: La Vieja, who is a mother figure for all the children at the port.
- Creepy Crossdresser: The killer is this.
- Crazy Homeless People: Zacarias, the mentally disturbed bum.
- Crime After Crime: Ramos murders Estela, because he's jealous of her relationship with Leonardo. Then the story goes on trying to murder every character that gets too close to the truth (or affects Leonardo in any way).
- Daughter of a Whore: Jose is the result of a one night stand between the mayor and Madam Flora. He didn't tell her who her mother was, though she obviously wanted to know.
- Disproportionate Retribution:
- Ayme runs on this. Get into a quarrel with Cuchillo? Send a hitman to cut her face. Leonardo beats her up after catching her stealing his wallet? Send a client to gun him down.
- The killer's reason for murdering Flora. She once mocked his closeted homosexuality. What's his response? Brutally murder her and cut her body into pieces.
- The Dog Was the Mastermind: The killer is revealed to be Leonardo's assistant, who was never suspected by the characters.
- Everyone Has Standards: Even a hateful Bad Boss like Leonardo finds disgusting the fact that Ramos killed innocent people just for a sick obsession over him.
- Fan Disservice: Almost all the nudity in the series is immediately before or during a murder scene.
- Friend-or-Idol Decision: Happens twice to Joaquin.
- He has to decide between work as Minaya's fellow fishermen or as Leonardo's apprentice. He chooses Leonardo.
- In the finale he is forced to choose between keep working for Leonardo or be with his Love Interest Jose. He chooses Jose in the end, but due to Leonardo's influence, Joaquin decided to go to college and become a businessman like his idol. So he gets both.
- Gorn: The killer leaves a lot of blood and bodyparts on his crime scenes. Some of the more gruesome scenes show he manages to do that.
- Gross-Up Close-Up: In addition, said death scenes are often prone to lingering on the gruesome details.
- Hilariously Abusive Childhood: Ramos tends to recount the cold and emotionless way his parents treated him and how he was bullied at school and called a freak and a homo. It's all Played for Laughs... until it's revealed those traumatic events made him the killer.
- History Repeats: Years ago, Zacarias lost his son in a car accident. He fell into depression to the point his wife left because she couldn't take it. He later reconciles with her and finds a surrogate son in Anguila.... only for him to be murdered by the killer. So he falls into depression and his wife leaves him again.
- Hooker with a Heart of Gold:
- Madam Flora, who takes excellent care of her girls and exhibits genuine concern for her biological daughter.
- Cuchillo is sarcastic, sassy, and crass, but she is very protective of her mentally challenged brother.
- Averted with Ayme, a Predatory Prostitute who uses her clients to attack the people she doesn't like.
- Karma Houdini: Cuchillo kills the mayor solely for thinking he was the one behind Anguila's murder. She never gets any comeuppance for this.
- Karmic Death: Ramos is beaten to death by Leonardo, whom he was obsessed with.
- Love Makes You Crazy: The motivation for the killer. When Leonardo promotes Estela instead of Ramos and later finds out they're dating, Ramos kills her out of jealousy. He later starts eliminating everyone he sees as coming close to find his identity or a threat to his happiness with Leonardo. This includes all of Leonardo's girlfriends and anyone who threatens Leonardo, such as the priest, who threatens to expose his corruption.
- Averted with the deaths of Anguila, Madam Flora and La Vieja, whom Ramos killed out of Disproportionate Retribution and Psychological Projection.
- In Love with the Mark: Chulpa was hired by Ayme to assassinate Cuchillo, but fell in love with her instead.
- Left Hanging: The series ends with Leonardo, Tony and Laura returning to Lima, ready to start their new lives together. Without providing an answer to how they're actually going to explain who was the killer. Technically, Tony did solve the case, but there's no one to face justice...
- Moral Myopia: Leonardo doesn't see anything wrong with cheating his fiance with his coworker and his secretary. But her cheating on him with a fisherman? No, that won't do.
- Murder the Hypotenuse: The reason the killer murdered Estela, Charo and Mariana.
- Mythology Gag: When Tony is interrogating Zacarias he calls him a "misterio" note , only for the latter to call him a "caradura" note . It's a reference to Misterio and Caradura, main characters from Misterio, another work from Aldo Miyashiro.
- Red Herring: A witness tells Tony that the serial killer is a woman. As it turns out, it's a Creepy Crossdresser instead.
- Peek-a-Boo Corpse: The fishermen turns on the light in a room, revealing Estela's body.
- Pet the Dog: Leonardo is a philandering, elitist snob who contanstly cheats on his fiance. But he's a good friend to Tony and wants to make something out of Joaquin.
- Plot-Triggering Death: Estela's death instigates everything that happens in the series.
- Police Are Useless: The cops do an awful job at trying to find the killer. Similarly, Tony is present obsessing over the wrong suspects while the real killer is offing the port residents practically under his nose.
- Strike Me Down with All of Your Hatred!: Ramos goads Tony into a vengeful rage by gloating about how he killed Tony's mother. This being Tony, he beats Ramos to death.
- Slashed Throat: How the killer murders Anguila and Charo.
- Unknown Rival: Ayme herself considers Cuchillo to be her rival in the prostitution business and always attempts to outdo her. Cuchillo on the other hand, sees Ayme as nothing but a nuisance.
- Uptown Girl: Fisherman Ivan falls in love with high-class Mariana.
- "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue:
- Tony marries Laura and they're expecting their child, but he still keeps his philandering ways. And if La Gran Sangre is any indication, she eventually finds out and leaves him.
- Huevera marries Pepe and they run a restaurant together.
- Minaya becomes the new mayor of Pucusana.
- Jose turns her mother's brothel into a famous nightclub and is still dating Joaquin, but it's implied their relationship won't last long.
- Cuchillo leaves Pucusana, with only Chulpa knowing her whereabouts.
- Ivan is devastated by Mariana's murder and leaves the port, never to return. According to
Word of God, he commits suicide.
- Yandere: Ramos is obsessed with being the closest to Leonardo and will murder anyone he even thinks Leonardo likes more than him.
- You Are What You Hate: The killer's reason for murdering Anguila was because he knew the truth about Estela's murder....and because he despises freaks, due to being called one as a child.
