Luz: The Light of the Heart follows the journey of a young girl as she unravels the mystery surrounding her family while making new friends along the way. The series is now streaming on Netflix.
Warning: This article contains heavy spoilers
Plot summary
On the day Luz is born, her father, Lucas, dies in a car accident. Lucas was in love with Luz’s mother and defied his wealthy father, Carlos Ferreira, to be with her.
Carlos blames Luz and her mother, Isa, for Lucas’ death. He wants them to disappear to hide the fact that Lucas had a child, who might later assert a claim to inheritance.
Carlos has Luz kidnapped; her mother is told that Luz died. Carlos then tells his right-hand man, Baltazar, that Luz’s mother is dead and asks him to abandon Luz in the forest.
However, Baltazar cannot bring himself to do it, so he takes her to Gá, who comes from an indigenous community called Kaingang.
Luz is raised by the community as one of their own. She considers Gá, who is fiercely protective of her, to be her grandmother.
On her ninth birthday, Baltazar gives her a firefly necklace that her father owned and tells her that her mother had a similar necklace.
As Baltazar keeps meeting Luz, Carlos finds out that she is alive. When Luz comes to know that she has a grandfather, she runs away, angry that Gá and Baltazar kept it from her for years.
With Carlos’ men as well as the community looking for Luz, she hides herself in the back of a van that belongs to Marcos, who is a teacher at a prestigious school called Prex.
Luz sneaks into Prex and meets a fourth grader named Joca, who becomes her friend. He helps her stay hidden, but Marcos eventually finds Luz.
Despite Luz not wanting Marcos to inform Gá about her whereabouts, he goes to meet her and learns about Luz’s situation.
Gá convinces Marcos to look after Luz for a while, as Carlos’ henchwoman, Valéria, has been keeping an eye on the community in order to find Luz and take her to Carlos.
Marcos wins Luz’s trust and promises to help her, but Luz is still reluctant to tell anyone about her plans to find her grandfather.
Marcos and Joca also have to introduce Luz to the rest of the class when they find out about her. Marcos lies to them and tells them that Luz is his second cousin.
He claims that Luz is the eighth student in their class. The principal has been under pressure to promptly enroll an eighth student for the Prex method to succeed.
Initially, the principal, Isabela, refuses to give Luz a scholarship, but when school inspectors visit the school, Luz makes quite an impression, and Isabela has no choice but to enroll her.
It is not long before the whole class warms up to Luz, but Sabina, Joca’s best friend turned enemy, is the only one who is not nice to Luz, as she feels threatened by Luz.
Marcos is in love with his friend, Dora, who owns a bookstore, but he never confesses his feelings because Dora is in a relationship with a teacher named Gael.
Carlos confesses to Baltazar that he lied about Luz’s mother’s death and asks him to find out who her mother is because Carlos never met his son’s girlfriend.
Baltazar’s search leads him to Dora. It turns out that Dora’s full name is Isadora, and she is Luz’s mother.
However, when Baltazar goes to inform Gá about it, Carlos’ henchmen kidnap him. Although Baltazar tells Carlos everything, he still orders Valéria to kill him.
At the same time, Luz decides to confide in Marcos about her grandfather, but when she overhears his conversation with Gá on the phone, she realizes that Marcos knew everything all along.
Feeling betrayed, she runs away from school with her friends’ help to meet her grandfather in order to find out the truth about her family and her past.
She reaches his farm but leaves without meeting him because she witnesses his treatment of Baltazar. Luz now knows that her grandfather means to harm her.
Dora and Marcos come looking for Luz, and Dora is able to win her trust in an instant. She convinces Luz to return to the school, and they go on to become close friends.
Luz’s reckless actions result in the principal replacing Marcos as the class supervisor. Additionally, the fourth-grade class dynamic undergoes a shift with the enrollment of Caio and Cadu, the twin sons of a billionaire.
As Carlos now knows that Dora is the woman for whom his son defied him, he decides to meet her. He hides his true identity from Dora and keeps visiting her store.
Gá attempts to get Valéria to side with them. It is then revealed that Valéria was not able to kill Baltazar that day, as he had managed to escape.
Valéria lied to Carlos about his death because she did not want him to think that she is incompetent. Now, she has no choice but to work with Baltazar to find Luz.
Baltazar also asks her to inform Gá that Luz’s mother is alive. As soon as Gá hears the news, she asks Marcos, who is appointed as the class supervisor again, to relay it to Luz.
It takes Luz time to come to terms with the fact that she is not an orphan. Additionally, Marcos tells Dora that Luz is not his cousin but rather a runaway he is helping.
However, he refuses to tell her Luz’s full story because Gá had cautioned him about the risks of involving others. Marcos’ decision upsets Dora.
Ending explained:
A valuable lesson
While Cadu is friendly and helpful, Caio is solely focused on being at the top of the class. Caio befriends Sabina but only because she is the best student.
Caio and Sabina are not very different, and in Caio’s company, Sabina ends up hurting her friends’ feelings. Due to that, Sabina ends up losing her friends.
Meanwhile, Luz and the others start disliking the ranking system. As per the Prex method, the students’ ranks, determined by their grades and behavior, are displayed in the cafeteria.
Luz notices that because of the system, everyone is competing with their friends all the time, which is making the students unhappy. The fourth graders then organize a protest.
While preparing for it, even Sabina helps them because she has now learned that her friends are more important than being number one.
This leads to Sabina and Luz becoming friends, putting aside their past differences. Together, the fourth graders damage the display, and Sabina is forgiven by her friends.
The children are not punished for it because it turns out that Nic, who led the protest, is the daughter of Isabela’s boss, Andrei, who acknowledges that the Prex method is not perfect yet.
There are problems with the system, and they cannot be solved until they listen to the children, which is exactly what they are going to do now.
However, before assisting them in reevaluating the method, Isabela opts to take time off to reconcile with her daughter, who has been upset with her for prioritizing work.
A sweet reunion
Gael had been investing all his money, along with that of some other people. He then finds out that his investor got scammed and lost all the money.
At the same time, to make Dora leave town forever, Carlos offers to buy her bookstore, but Dora refuses to sell.
Carlos then comes to know about Gael’s debts and proposes to pay him a significant sum of money in exchange for burning the bookstore down. He also tells Gael about Dora’s past.
Gael, who had asked Dora to marry him, does not like the fact that Dora did not tell him about Lucas and their daughter. He confronts Dora and ends up making her upset.
Gael then sets fire to the store, unaware that Dora is in the storage room. Marcos is also there; he had also gone to meet Dora.
While the two of them make it out unharmed, a heartbroken Dora decides to take a break. She is going to go away for a while. Amidst all this, Gael decides to end their relationship.
Marcos tells Luz about Dora leaving, and Luz decides to gift Dora a picture that she had her classmate draw based on how she imagines her mother to look.
When Dora gets the picture, she recognizes the firefly necklace. She then shows her necklace to Marcos and tells him about her past.
Marcos realizes that Dora is Luz’s mother, the woman he and Gá have been looking for. He reveals to Dora that her daughter never died and tells her Luz’s story.
Furthermore, when Marcos shows Dora a picture of Carlos, Dora realizes that the man who has been visiting her is Lucas’ father.
The two of them conclude that Luz is in danger and decide to take her somewhere safe. Finally, Luz gets to meet her mother, and she is happy that it is Dora.
The battle ahead
Valéria steals the phone that Gá had been using to speak to Marcos. She finally finds out where Luz has been hiding.
When Valéria goes to inform Carlos about it, she also reveals to him that she is his daughter. That is why Valéria keeps seeking his approval.
However, Carlos already knows that Valéria is his daughter, and he has no intention of accepting her. In fact, when Valéria does not reveal Luz’s whereabouts, he claims that he should have abandoned her as well.
Baltazar intervenes and does not let Carlos harm Valéria, who then leaves her father’s side to work with Baltazar to protect Luz.
The two of them tell Gá about having found Luz’s mother before Marcos and Dora bring Luz home to Gá, who is happy to reunite with Luz.
Along with Dora and Luz, Baltazar and Valéria will also stay with the community, where they will be protected.
With time, Dora reopens her bookstore. It is decided that it will be safer for Luz to attend the community school instead of Prex until they know what Carlos plans to do next.
Now that Dora is not with Gael, Marcos and Dora confess their feelings for each other and start dating. Luz and Dora get to live like a happy family.
After Valéria left with Baltazar, Carlos did not send his men after them. Baltazar believes it is because Carlos is not completely heartless, but Valéria has her doubts
Carlos is, in fact, planning his next move. Luz was never registered as Dora’s daughter, and he intends to go to court to fight for custody.
He plans to make Luz, Dora, Marcos, and the community pay, and he will force Gael to help him do it.