Juan and Sonia arrive at a large old house, an ideal place to raise their newborn son. When, one night before going to bed, they check the operation of the monitoring device installed in the baby's room, they discover that someone is sitting next to the crib.
Two speleologists, Esteban and Pedro, travel to a mountainous area located in northern Spain, near a small village, to study a newly discovered cave and determine if it is of scientific interest, while Gabi, Esteban's wife, awaits their return on a lonely road at the foot of the mountain.
Barcelona, 1980s: in a tough urban neighbourhood inhabited by survivors and ruled by ex-legionnaires Gandhi, Fontán and Andrade - who are fighting a war for control of the streets - Nen and his friends Palito, Topo and Tostao dream of making it big in the world of rumba. But Nen discovers why his father, El Guacho - of whom all Nen has left is the memory of his brilliance as a rumba singer - disappeared many years earlier. He learns how the relationship between his mother, Chata, and Ghandi, leader of the neighbourhood, was connected to his father's disappearance, and so Nen is forced to balance his own desire for vengeance with his longing to triumph.
Almería, Tabernas desert, Spain, 2002. Texas Hollywood is a dilapidated and dusty town where Western movies have not been shot for decades. Julián Torralba and his partners, veteran film stuntmen, survive there, recreating pathetic action scenes for the pleasure of the few foreign tourists who visit the isolated region.
Madrid, 1965. When The Beatles arrive in the city, Diana goes to great lengths to meet them.
An air-hostess is pregnant but she does not know the name of the father, a foreigner. When the baby is born, she gives it to her sister that has already two children. The child grows up as another member of the family. Although the adults keep the secret, the children know that he is different.
Marco Vallez (Antonio Banderas) is possessed by the beauty of a circus sharp shooter, and from the second they meet he is willing to give up everything to be with her. But one horrifying night sends them both down a road of revenge leaving behind a trail of bodies to the ultimate showdown with justice.
Amós is a sailor and owner of a ship. He is impatient with the arrival of his uncle who returns from the Soviet Union, after having exiled there after the Civil War. They have no time to meet because the old man unexpectedly dies. Amos knows, thanks to the letters his mother received, that his uncle had a treasure. However, this one is not among the objects that were in the old man's room.
In the post Spanish civil war years, Catalan kids would sit in circles among the ruins and tell stories, known as "aventis" (the film's original title in Catalan, its original language). These tales mix war stories, local gossip, comic book characters, fantasy and real events. The "aventis" told in this film are told in flashback. In the mid 80s, 45 or so years after the age of the "aventis," a doctor and a nurse-nun (who grew up together, and now are co-workers in a hospital) identify the corpse of one of the main characters of the "aventis" of their childhood and adolescence. Besides the interesting flashbacks - a chronical of the Civil War in a "typical" Barcelona microcosm itself, the discovery of this body (belonging to someone long presumed dead) leads to other surprises and unresolved doubts, several decades later
A young man, son and grandson of soldiers, refuses to perform military service, causing a commotion in the whole family. Finally, social, environmental and family pressures, will force the young to make a decision that will have unforeseeable consequences.