The Mona Lisa loses her famous smile, and so does the rest of the world.

Cecilio Rubes, a businessman engaged in the manufacture of baths and toilets, tries to remain neutral in the imminent Spanish civil war. But the attitude of Cécil, his only child, a spoiled boy who grows without respect their parents, will forced him to face the cruel reality of the facts. Jumping back and forth in time, we are shown his present and his past through his wife Adela and Paulina, the mistress of father and son.

Agustín, a school teacher, visits Paco, a former student, whose mother asks him to help her get the boy on the right track.

Trini is the daughter and granddaughter of thieves. Before it was a specialist in the art of opening safes, but one day decided to change their way of life and is now a cashier at a supermarket. It has also taken a law student boyfriend, but all will be dashed when his father stop, Mr. Baldomero, for stealing 36 kilos of appliances.

Córdoba, Spain. Lord Killarney, representative of the British Museum, acquires an Arabic incunabulum at an auction; but he is murdered and the book disappears. All suspicions fall on El Lince, an antique dealer with a shady background, who asks his nephew to warn Curro Jiménez.