In 1931, a young soldier deserts from the army and falls into a country farm, where he is welcomed by the owner due to his political ideas. Manolo has four daughters, Fernando likes all of them and they like him, so he has to decide which one to love.

Pelayo is leaving to work for his uncle Lorenzo and to find a nice girl to settle down with. Pelayo arrives to find out that Lorenzo's "business" is in fact a male strip show and Lorenzo's dancers are a laughing stock. Lorenzo has all his money tied up in his wedding with ex-prostitute Palmira. With Pelayo arriving life turns upside down. Can Lorenzo keep his infidelities a secret and his crew off the streets? Can Pelayo keep from falling for a prostitute on his way to finding a wife?

In the autumn of 1970, Juan, a Spanish poet living in Paris working for UNESCO, returns on vacation to his hometown, Burgos. The city is under heavy police and military surveillance due to the so-called Burgos process, a summary military trial against a group of ETA members and other militants against Francisco Franco’s regime.

In the early Spanish Civil Post-war, in Madrid, during the most hard times of the Franco dictatorship, a group of second-rate players try to get out of their wretched lives taking advantage of the artistic caprices of the son of a rich man who supports the regime. They try to stage a Pre-war 'zarzuela' (a sort of Spanish operetta), 'La Corte Del Faraón', which ironically, thirty years later, is too obscene for the regime censorship. They finally manage to perform the 'zarzuela' but end up in the police station where they confirm that justice depends on which side are you on

A family, expelled from their shack, occupies the museum in Cordoba where once lived the prince who, in his youth, was the grandmother's lover. The curators and administrators of the museum, aided by a couple of inexperienced policemen, harass the squatters to force them to leave.

In 1940's Madrid. Juan plays piano for Pepita and her on-stage partner Mario. Although Mario really wants to steal Juan for himself, Juan is not interested and Mario resorts to a string of lovers as consolation. When he loves (and leaves) a young nobleman, the young man wants revenge.

On the way to his exile in Lisbon, Mario meets Silvia, a widow who turns out to be one of his admirers. Silvia has inherited a fortune, leading Mario to resume his career, eventually falling for him. Although Mario has relations with her, he makes it clear that will never fall in love. In Madrid, Juan Pepita and resume their relationship, and because of this the jilted Nena John Colman murders before Pepita, after being arrested. Pepita accepts a contract in Argentina, reunited with Mario. There he meets Tulio, who after starting a relationship with singer eventually ask marriage.