老人罗德里格在淘金热时前去美国，反而赔了自己一生的积蓄，后来他返回西班牙，自己的儿子已经死去，留下一双女儿，在儿子的遗言里，他告诉罗德里格，这其中有一个女儿并非他的亲生骨肉……

一个13岁的男孩，生活在一个特殊的人身边：他的祖父、叔叔和两个女仆。他爱上了其中一个。

Irene lives with Mateo, his father, and her son David, 22 years old. Living together is harmonious and happy, but there is a conflict: David, a brilliant student of architecture, has decided to go and live with his girlfriend Clara, a supermarket cashier. Despite its liberal way of thinking, Irene cannot understand such an unequal relationship. However, David finds in his grandfather the necessary complicity to carry out his plans. Mateo is a old and vital octogenarian despite his tough history: he was a child during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), and he lost his house and all his family. But none of that could finish with his energy and desire to live. One day, however, Mateo arrives with terrible news.

A great spanish cult movie!!
This is one of the most astonishing films ever made. It has some scenes that it should be in the history of cinema. Like the filming by Fernando Fernan Gomez of the militias using a big roll of paper to win a positions. Or the begging of the film based on real events. The birth of the director inside the carp where the first cinematographer was showing "the train arriving to the station". Being shoot in really simple way it's amazing the proper use of the audiovisual language. The late Guillermo Cabrera Infante showed this film in a Canadian film festival in Spanish without subtitles when the projection finish the audience didn't move and they ask for seen the film again. The effect of this film in the audience is unbelievable. None a single person that has seen this rare Spanish movie could forget it. Except the main actor Fernando Fernan Gomez who never remember work on it.