Luciano has been working in an important company for fifteen years without be rewarded for his efforts, his fidelity and submission. On the recommendation of a cousin, he acts as front man for the shameful business of his managers. They get it so far as to force him to marry the former mistress of one of the directors. Finally, because of a fire in the chalet where he lives and where they cook the dirty business of which he is not responsible for, Luciano ends up in jail for covering up and taking on some responsibilities that are not his, fulfilling his role of straw man until the end.
When the single middle-aged Luis travels from Barcelona to bury the remains of his mother in the vault of his family in Segovia, he is lodged by his aunt Pilar in her old house where he spent his summer of 1936 with her. He meets his cousin Angelica, who was his first love, living on the first floor with her husband and daughter, and he recalls his childhood in times of the Spanish Civil War entwined with the present.
Don Rodrigo goes to the bank and when he is going to take his money there is a robbery. Then the bank refuses to give him his money back (257 pesetas, a small amount of money) with the argument that the money was robbed to him, not to the bank. He will fight against the bank till the last consequences.
Dr. Orlof, a former prison doctor, abducts beautiful women from nightclubs to use their skin to repair his daughter's fire-scarred face. He is assisted by Morpho, a deformed monstrosity who delights in biting his victims. Orlof had better hurry, though -- a young police inspector and his ballerina girlfriend are onto his sadistic practices.
María de la O leaves her family and her former boyfriend Miguel to go with a rich landowner who's supposedly in love with her...