Against a background of war breaking out in Europe and the Mexican fiesta Day of Death, we are taken through one day in the life of Geoffrey Firmin, a British consul living in alcoholic disrepair and obscurity in a small southern Mexican town in 1939. The consul's self-destructive behaviour, perhaps a metaphor for a menaced civilization, is a source of perplexity and sadness to his nomadic, idealistic half-brother, Hugh, and his ex-wife, Yvonne, who has returned with hopes of healing Geoffrey and their broken marriage.
A defrocked Episcopal clergyman leads a bus-load of middle-aged Baptist women on a tour of the Mexican coast and comes to terms with the failure haunting his life.
Poor, hungry peasant Macario longs for just one good meal on the Day of the Dead. After his wife cooks a turkey for him, he meets three apparitions, the Devil, God, and Death. Each asks him to share his turkey, but he refuses all except Death. In return, Death gives him a bottle of water which will heal any illness. Soon, Macario is more wealthy than the village doctor, which draws the attention of the feared Inquisition.
After a quarrel with her boyfriend on New Year's Eve, Mane drives her car from Mexico City to Cuernavaca to meet her parents in their country house. The car breaks down in the highway and Mane has to ask for help. Mechanic Cruci arrives and, after testing the car, offers Mane a ride on his motorcycle. Back in Mane's house, she invites him some drinks to celebrate New Year's Eve. They get drunk and, the morning after, Mane's parents arrive and find them sleeping together. Not knowing what happened, Mane and Cruci are forced to get married against their will.
Cantinflas is a unique barber, who trades with an elderly neighbor, a lawyer by profession, laws lessons in exchange for haircuts and shaved. It proposes advice to defend in court the disadvantaged neighborhood. His success deputy seeks the votes as the other candidate, Don Próculo, it is not accepted by anyone but his own bodyguards. Don Próculo will use know how much ruse to win the election by the Council, and also for the love of 'Sarita'
Rosario, the niece of the rancher, returns to the ranch after ten years of absence. She takes in Margarito, a worker at the ranch, who is immediately smitten by her. Rosario is rescued from a runaway horse by the Seven Men, an outlaw a la Robin Hood that steals from the rich and gives to the poor. He also happens to be the twin brother of Margarito, unbeknownst to him. The confusion between Margarito and the Seven Men generates great comical situations in the film.
Starring Mexican star Pedro Infante, "Black Angels" is about a couple formed by a beautiful woman and a singer, both white, who are parents of a black girl. The woman blames him, but the girl will suffer the racist treatment from her own mother. Mexican version of the famous novel by Fannie Hurst "Imitation of Life"