The plot deals with the developments in an old decadent village after a stranger arrives at the old train station, an event in itself. This stranger is a Brazilian musician who carries and plays his "oboe". The music from the oboe, the musician's instrument, will change the lives of everyone involved, and that small village itself will forever be changed by the sound of the oboe.

In the small town called Amerigua where most things are controlled by the influential Colonel Banderas, the people are preparing themselves for the annual beauty contest. At the same time the revolutionist Evaristo returns after twenty years of exile in Nicaragua. He now seeks revenge aswell as his childhood friend Maria...