Juán Auzmendi, sacristan of a small Spanish village, decides to emigrate to America in search of new horizons. To pay for the trip, he steals the saving of his parish priest and begins the journey to the city of Pasajes, where he hopes to get on a ship. But Spain is again on the verge of a Civil War and the trip to the coast gets complicated.

The story unfolds in Bilbao. Rocío (Emma Suárez), is in love with Mario (Antonio Banderas), a free rider with a lot of face that, to top it all, is partner of the business of her father, Domingo (Francisco Rabal) with whom she maintains incestuous relations. When Domingo passes away, both Mario and Rocío's mother have to put to the front of the business, finishing with the inheritance that could receive Rocío. In the midst of her frustration, a young business worker, secretly in love with Rocío, will try to have the legacy of her father end up in the hands of his rightful heiress.

A young man is hired to take care of two orphaned siblings in a remote seaside mansion and soon realizes that someone... or something from the past is out to get the children.

In the summer of 1977, a political prisoner, living in exile, recounts the circumstances of his escape to a journalist: in April 76, a group of ETA members planned to escape from prison, but the project fails when, due to a tip-off, the guards discover the tunnel they are digging. The inmates, far from being discouraged, start a second tunnel.