Madrid, Spring 1913. During a visit to the casino, a beautiful 20 year-old woman catches the eye of a 50 year-old rich widower. But the gamble he is about to commit is far greater than he suspects.

Somewhere in the spanish country, in the 60s. Paco and his wife Régula are very poor. They work as tenant farmers for a very wealthy landowner. They have 3 children. One is backward. The others can not got to school because the master "needs" their work. When Regula's brother is fired from where he has worked for 61 years, he settles down at their little place... An attack against the archaism of the spanish country of the 60s.

The plot follows a private detective, an ex communist and former CIA agent, who travels from Barcelona to Madrid to discover the identity of the assassin of the leader of the Spanish Communist party who was stabbed during a blackout while presiding over a meeting of the party's central committee. The film is a thriller with ironic political overtones.

Gustavo is morbidly dominated by his mother, Doña Leticia, who refuses to accept another woman in her son's life.

Luciano has been working in an important company for fifteen years without be rewarded for his efforts, his fidelity and submission. On the recommendation of a cousin, he acts as front man for the shameful business of his managers. They get it so far as to force him to marry the former mistress of one of the directors. Finally, because of a fire in the chalet where he lives and where they cook the dirty business of which he is not responsible for, Luciano ends up in jail for covering up and taking on some responsibilities that are not his, fulfilling his role of straw man until the end.