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.

Dr. Wilfred Manz performs a magical experiment on a beetle-shaped amulet. His patience exhausted, he smashes his fist into some bottles and a few drops of blood fall onto the scarab. His laboratory is rocked by an explosion, the god Khepera appears and Manz is transformed into a demi-god magician. Thirty years later, Manz has assumed the name Khepera and lives in mysterious castle. Using his magical powers, he is killing heads of government and causing the collapse of major financial institutions. Jack Murphy, an American correspondent, witnesses the pandemonium following the suicide of the Spanish prime minister and notices an attractive nurse, Elena, take a small scarab which has fallen from the prime minister's lapel. Later, he visits an occult shop where the scarab is identified as being associated with the Egyptian god, Khepera. Murphy is captured and Elena — who was tricked into sacrificing her brother when they were children — once more takes up the sacrificial dagger...

In 16th century Rome, Rampín, a friendly and shameless rogue, exploits his arts of deception. He lives with his aunt, Napolitana, a pimp dedicated to the same trades as his nephew. With the arrival of a beautiful Andalusian, Lozana, her fortune enters their house by making her the most beautiful courtesan in Rome. Lozana and Rampín reach an agreement: he will be at her service, taking her lovers home, and she will treat him like a king and give him the best, something that others will never have. But one fine day, Don Sancho, a handsome Spaniard, falls in love with her.