Musical adaptation of Carl Jonas Love Almqvist's own compositions tied together by a loose story inspired by his prose writing.

Three friends who haven't seen each other for seventeen years reunite and have a lot to tell about what has happened in the meantime. The film follows the friends for some time afterwards and then moves another twenty years in the future...

Spain 1820. It's meal time at the cigar factory. Carmen spends her break in the square. Close by is Don José cleaning his weapons.