Nearly half a century ago, Carmen Ignarra arrived to Mexico after leaving behind her Cuban homeland, in the hopes of becoming the greatest Caribbean actress in Hollywood. But the American dream tur- ned out to be more difficult than she’d thought, and her brief initial success was followed by a slow, painful decline. Today, at 80, the woman who was once Cuba’s most beautiful actress lives totally forgotten in an old mansion in Monterrey. There she survives thanks to her tenants—strange men who she is constantly blaming for mysterious thefts and disappearances. Laura, a young woman also from the Caribbean, arrives at the mansion to work as an assistant in cleaning and housekeeping. With her she brings a video camera and the secret intention of making a documentary about the diva. Together they talk about the past, about wasted talent and lost loves.

Brother Pío, intending to collect charity for a group of nuns who run an orphanage, travels to Madrid with a statue of the Baby Jesus. On the train ride there, he meets Lucio, a slick-talking small-time thief, who steals the statue from him in order to collect the donations for himself.

On New Year's Eve, a banker and his wife invite several friends to have dinner in their apartment. Suddenly, an astrologer makes an appearance and predicts seven of the present people will die in the next weeks.