A gang of teenagers accidentally inherits a bag of drugs. They try to sell them back to their original gangster owners, but when that goes awry, they are reluctantly drawn into a protracted and bloody gang war. Meanwhile, they are neglected at home, and must deal with family abuse as well as the gangsters.
The film concerns the attempts of Fidel to resume a normal life after the devastation wrought by his wife's death. He returns to his old friend Crispin and wife Irene. A tentative effort with another woman fails, and Fidel finds himself in Irene's arms. That same evening a young girl is brutally murdered. Fidel, unable to account for his whereabouts, is named the principal suspect, which later leads to his imprisonment. Crispin, meanwhile, learns of Irene's infidelity; his friendship is put to the test when Fidel escapes, gets wounded, and asks Crispin to kill him and put him out of misery.
Soriano brothers Dennis, Chip, and Jeff are bums who do odd jobs to earn a living, including driving a jeepney. Their lives take a different turn after meeting Atty. Aga Agaton, who told them that they are long-lost grandsons of a USA-based millionaire. According to the will, the brothers would get the inheritance when they finish high school. The brothers enroll at Rajah Putih High School where their age turns them into the butt of their classmates' jokes. They eventually befriend a group of students after saving them from bullies. They also seek help from Einstein, the class' resident genius, in order to get away with the most difficult subjects.
A young couple eloped, got married and then must cope with problems like money, living on their own, trying finish school and raising a baby. not to mention the fact that even young married couples do get bored sometimes.
The fortunes of three impoverished friends and their families abruptly change after an airplane crashes in a nearby mountain. They rush to the crash site along with all the villagers, not to help the victims but to plunder their valuables. A dead American passenger carried a large amount of money in his briefcase which Mesiong, Ponsoy, and Jamin find and avariciously keep for themselves. But the town mayor gets greedy and with his hirelings abducts the three to divest them of their booty.
Oro, Plata, Mata follows two aristocratic families in Negros during World War II. It is structured in three parts: Oro a life of luxury and comfort in the city, Plata a still-luxurious time of refuge in a provincial hacienda, and finally Mata a toilsome retreat deeper into the mountains.