Matias is a soccer referee. He promised his dying mother never to lie. When he referees a match of the spanish national team and there is a clear penalty against Spain in the last minute of the game he has no choice and marks the foul. As a result Spain does not qualify for the world championship and Matias is forced to escape from the rage of the people. He hides in the town of his father which he hasn't visited since his childhood.

A work of Valle-Inclán, the story takes place in Galicia in the early twentieth century. To escape poverty, the wife of a sacristan uses a hydrocephalic child as a sideshow attraction. This causes a confrontation with her sister-in-law.