A bank robbery goes wrong. The robbers, two of them unemployed family men, take two hostages, one of them needing heart medication, and leave them in an apartment, tied to a bomb. The police has to find the apartment before the bomb explodes. At the same time, in the same house, two old men are solving a jigsaw puzzle, and a female cellist practices the Bach cello suites.
The consortium of the people approve a proposal from the Mayor; instruct Ramon, a ruined sculptor, an equestrian statue of Franco. Luis, one of the councilors, visit Ramon and proposes the commission, Ramon rejects for ideological grounds, but after thinking it accepts as there are no marble equestrian statues. When Ramon finally finished the statue, the whole consortium believes it is past time to inaugurate a statue of Franco. To satisfy Ramon approve the making of a new statue. This is dedicated to democracy.
Colometa is an average housewife with two children to care for in the late 1930's, as the Spanish Civil War is starting and her husband goes off to fight. She had been an ordinary woman working in a shop when she met the lively carpenter who married her, and their life together was without major problems. But now she is forced to raise her children under straitened circumstances, and after her husband dies, her life undergoes another major change as she marries for the second time. Underneath Colometa's acquiescent, forebearing exterior must lie just a few discontents, a few unrealized dreams - but they never surface as she blithely moves from one episode in her life to another.
Barcelona between 1917 and 1923. Is the era of gangsterism, during which gunmen clash between anarchists and thugs paid by The Patronal showed a shocking number of deaths. The confrontation between anarchists and workers of the factory owners Savolta arms worsens when Savolta family decides to end the rebellion hiring murderers hired and plotting to hide their illegal transactions with Germany. Adapted from the novel by Eduardo Mendoza.
Leonor and Juan are a united couple of good standing that cannot have children. They want to adopt one but do not succeed because he is too old. Leonor proposes Juan an audacious plan: having a child with another woman, offering her a significant amount of money if she renunciates to the child. As it is very difficult to find the girl, they publish an advertisement in the press. Ana finally applies, as she has no job and lives far away from his family, so she accepts the deal.