The head of a plumbing and electrical workshop is a victim of bureaucracy in public offices and is unable to pay his debts, so his workshop is closed. With a lot of luck he manages to get a repair job in the house of a minister, then he enters to work in a ministry, also becoming a bureaucrat. Taking advantage of his friendship with the minister, he is promoted to become chief archivist, but he realizes the routine that is filling the job and resigns.
The film narrates the problems faced by a small group from the small imaginary town of Tunco that arrives in Santiago to ask their representative in parliament for the construction of a road to improve communication alternatives for the inhabitants of the southern hamlet.