Carlos, a ruthless Spanish negotiation expert working in Brussels, is tasked with handling the kidnapping of a senior oil company executive in a troubled West African country —with which he has old and deep ties—, torn by ethnic tensions and government abuses.

A toilet lady gets an undercover visit by a tax collector, who notices several infractions and sends her an invoice of more than 300.000 Euro. While in the public restroom, the tax collector also finds out someone has been dealing drugs and starts selling powdered sugar to the local junks, pretending it is cocaine. In the meantime, a serial killer has been trying to flush his victims' body parts down the drain.

Recounts the experiences of a middle-class family, the Alcántaras, during the last years of the rule of Francisco Franco and the beginning of the Spanish Transition to democracy.