Desperate Lies tells the story of Liana, an ordinary Brazilian woman who wants a child with her loving husband. The decision to have a child was both Liana’s and Tomas’s idea, but Tomas grows tired of making love according to a schedule and cheats on his wife with a woman named Claudia, who is also a cyclist. When Liana learns about the affair, Tomas moves out to cool down. During this time, Liana talks to her best friend and business partner Deborah, about her feelings. Deborah suggests that the best thing for Liana would be to relax at her brother Oscar’s club known as the hottest spot in town.
Trusting her friend, Liana agrees to go, but Deborah leaves with a man soon after they arrive leaving Liana alone. That’s when Oscar reveals his huge crush on her. Liana feels uneasy, but Oscar gets her drunk and gives her a . He then offers to take her home and attacks her while she is unconscious believing she led him on. When Tomas comes back, Liana says nothing about the assault, but he soon finds out that she is expecting twins.
Due to “heteropaternal superfecundation,” Liana is having twins by two different dads. One twin’s dad is her husband and the other twin’s dad is her attacker. After doing a paternity test, Liana decides to tell Tomas the truth. At first, Tomas calls her unfaithful and blames her. But he chooses to “deal” with it because having kids is their shared dream. Liana plans to give Oscar’s kid up for adoption and picks a nice couple, Betina and Sergio, to adopt him when he is born.
But when the boys are born, Liana feels that the twins miss each other so she decides to keep Marcos even though Tomas doesn’t agree. Then, Tomas starts to treat the kids . Marcos is Oscar’s son and Matheus is Tomas’ so Tomas favors his own son. Years later when the kids are 10, Marcos almost drowns at a waterfall and Tomas is slow to rescue him showing he is acting not like a dad should. Although Liana tries hard to make Tomas treat the boys during their childhood, she doesn’t succeed.
Liana is not the only person Oscar has harmed. He often gives drugs to the men who visit his club and even provides them with keys to rooms to take women into. When one of these women threatens to sue Oscar, Tomas’ father saves him because he is one of the best lawyers in the city. , Tomas is employed at his father’s firm. Realizing the kind of person Oscar is, Tomas reports the club for drugs using a policeman named Nelson to carry out the action. Oscar is imprisoned for a while but is later released and relocates to Argentina. The club is closed, and Oscar loses everything he has worked for all his life.
The situation worsens by the fact that Liana’s brother Lucas died in a car crash, and Oscar was with him. They were close friends and played football together even winning a championship. But Oscar’s career ended, and Liana lost her brother. Oscar’s father kept a secret that at the time of the crash, Lucas and Oscar were using drugs and alcohol. Oscar still blames Lucas although he himself encouraged Lucas to drive faster when he was under the influence, which caused his death.
The Ending
Ten years later when Oscar comes back from Argentina, he plans to open a new bar. He finds out Inacio, who is Sylvia’s son and Tomas’ nephew works as a DJ so he invites him to perform at the bar’s first night. Inacio, not knowing Oscar, agrees to DJ and calls his family to come to the opening. Liana is upset by this, and Tomas decides to go as well to discover Oscar has deceived them. This makes Tomas very angry, and his anger grows over time.
Things escalate when Oscar begins spending time with children at their soccer club after he notices in photos from Deborah that Marcos resembles him as a child. Oscar is after money leading him to bother Liana. Even more, he begins seeing Claudia, who is the same woman Tomas had an affair with, and convinces her to get DNA samples for him. Oscar takes a paternity test and finds out the truth about his child. He then forces his way into Liana’s house to demand money. Tomas arrives at that moment and points a gun at him. Since Oscar had done the same before, Tomas had rehearsed for such a moment. They fight, and Tomas shoots Oscar in the chest killing him .
Tomas however, decides to marry Claudia. Oscar’s father cannot bear his son’s killer having a normal life and shows up with a weapon at the wedding. Marcos manages to prevent disaster, yet Tomas fails to see his own foolishness. Matheus reproaches him for being a bad father and a terrible person, which Julia records and shares with Liana. This motivates Liana to tell the truth and redeem her family. Despite this, Tomas attempts to burn their house down with them inside, but Liana saves her children. In the series conclusion, Tomas returns to jail, and Liana lives with her new partner Dante, and her children. She achieves her happy ending while Claudia remains controlled by Tomas.