Three second-rate delinquints - a retired, crippled pickpocket, a man born and raised in a prision who's never seen a day of freedom, and a young loser - escape from the police van that is taking them back to prison when it crashes. They jump a freight train and make their way to the Mediterranean coast, and hide out in an isolated mansion by the sea. In spite of the fact that it's the off-season for tourism, the house seems to be well maintained and strangely well stocked. Almost as strange as the sudden appearance of Nina, a young foreigner, whom the three fugitives have no choice but to hold against her will. However, when Nina is followed by some shady Russian mafia figures, our 'heroes' become accidentally involved in a plutonium-trafficking scheme. In this fast moving feature nobody is what they seem and three escaped criminals turn out to be the only ones amidst lies, plots and seduction who act in the name of honesty.

This drama concerns a seven-year-old boy, Pepe Luis (Lucas Martin, as the younger Pepe and Paco Rabal Cerezales as Pepe at ten) who lives through the rise of Franco and the ensuing years under the fascist dictator. Presented from the perspective of the young Pepe, the Civil War and Franco are irrelevant to his own concerns: daydreaming about a pretty girl he likes, fighting with other boys, helping the priest at a funeral service, and similar activities. Pepe lives with his uncle and grandparents, and whether he is aware of it or not, the war impinges on their lives in several ways. The title of the film derives from little Pepe's contention that God is not responsible for the war, just some "bastard brother" of the Creator.

José is a happily married executive, with children, a flat in Madrid and a house in the suburbs. It's Friday and the weekend seems to follow the usual pattern: football match with mates, travel to the mountains and family visit. Nevertheless, José feels no motivated by his routine, he no longer distinguishes leisure from their obligations, all of which result in an unexpected final decision by his attentive wife.

In 60s Extremadura, Paco el Bajo and his relatives work during day in a farmhouse, and silently suffer submission to their masters, who exploit them and treat them almost like animals. Meanwhile, Paco dreams that one day his children will be able to study.

A Nobel prize winner returns to his natal city looking for his home.

Private detective Germán Areta el Piojo gets a terminally ill client who wishes to see his long lost, runaway daughter before he dies.

As in the novel of the same title from Camilo Jose Cela, "La Colmena" is a sad composition with the stories of many people in the Madrid of 1942, just the postwar of the spanish civil war. The main theme of the film is the contrast between the poets, surviving close to misery under the Franco's regime, and the winners of the war, the emerging class of the people that makes easy money with illegal business.