Juan is the handsome, irresponsible, best-loved second son. When his older brother, who runs the family's black-market business with their steel-willed mother, marries Juan's lover Ana, Juan heads for Madrid to work for Franco. Juan also leaves behind his impoverished cousin, Ángela, pregnant with his son. Jump ten years. Juanito, the lad, has rheumatic fever. The doctor says to pamper the boy. Ángela, Ana, and his grandmother comply. As Juanito recovers, his father returns in desperate need of cash; Juanito witnesses a theft blamed on his innocent mother. Things come to a head at a saint's-name party for father and son. Jealousies, betrayals, and a bullet converge.

Juan is the handsome, irresponsible, best-loved second son. When his older brother, who runs the family's black-market business with their steel-willed mother, marries Juan's lover Ana, Juan heads for Madrid to work for Franco. Juan also leaves behind his impoverished cousin, Ángela, pregnant with his son. Jump ten years. Juanito, the lad, has rheumatic fever. The doctor says to pamper the boy. Ángela, Ana, and his grandmother comply. As Juanito recovers, his father returns in desperate need of cash; Juanito witnesses a theft blamed on his innocent mother. Things come to a head at a saint's-name party for father and son. Jealousies, betrayals, and a bullet converge.

Spain. The Basque Country. Sometime in the 90s. Josu Jon, a young member of a terrorist organization, has suffered an almost complete memory loss after being wounded in a shooting with the Spanish police. As he awaits for his trial, his condition is being treated at the prison hospital. Other inmates belonging to the same organization try to make him remember how brave a "gudari" -a Basque soldier- he is and how he must go back to the armed fight for the independence of their country as soon as he gets out of prison. Meanwhile, Xabier, a college professor who has been death-threatened by the terrorists due to his political views on the Basque situation, is having an affair with Francesca, a young psychologist who happens to end up trying to help Josu Jon recover his memory. A warm feeling of mutual affection grows between her and her patient. At a point, it doesn't seem to be clear whether Josu Jon really wants to recover his memory or rather forget forever who he actually is.

Federico, an executive of national television, begins to suspect that his wife Elena, an actress who retired prematurely after marriage, is cheating him with another man. The symptoms are that Elena sighs, looks far into heaven and is aware of the exact time a comet passes. In other words, she expects her most beautiful night.

Ramiro's grandfather is on vacation in a hostel in the mountains with his family. Decides to send theirs to Madrid and stay in a shelter, saying his health requires. But the reason is another ...

After an old soldier named Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616) wrote the adventures of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, the knight and his squire have become very popular. When he learns that the Turkish comes along the Mediterranean coast with a powerful army, Don Quixote will undertake, again opposed by his niece and his housekeeper, a new adventure that begins in La Mancha and ends on the coast.

When three estranged sisters, Gloria, Ana and Lidia, meet up again on the death of their mother, Adela, they find themselves obeying her somewhat eccentric last wishes. Though their mother has spent the last 30 years without uttering a single word, she has left very clear written instructions of what she wants done after her death.

After the civil war, Rosa, a beautiful and hard worker woman falls in love with a sharpener who turns out to be a con man. When she becomes a widow, she emigrates to Madrid with her daughter beginning to work as a nurse in the home of Don Pedro, an influential food manager.

Simón transports illegal immigrants to New York, leaving them to their fate. When he is discovered by the coastguard, a young sailor, named Andrés saves his life. But when Andrés falls for Marie—a young protegée of Simón's—conflict erupts.

A young Catholic girl takes viewers through a changing Spanish political and social landscape as she develops from her confirmation day to adulthood. Her first experience with the real Spain comes when her Jewish godfathers cannot come to her confirmation. One of the godfathers, using a ring, poses an early challenge to her innocence that puts her in danger. He later returns, indirectly introducing her to a new boyfriend. If he is one of the symbols for Jewish life under Franco, or for a Judeo-Christian interaction, that interaction is complex. The young woman encounters different lovers as she grows into adulthood, but at the same time she is burdened with financially supporting her father and his own rather decadent lifestyle. Again, this difference in generations could be understood as a difference between the "new" and "old" Spain; it is up to the viewers to interpret the story elements as they decide.