A handsome and mysterious stranger, played by Darío Grandinetti, walks into the town square of Villaserena one day and strategically places loudspeakers around the town, blaring a variety of musical tunes. Soon, he begins to sell airtime to the various locals, who broadcast their own personal love dedications and (more frequently) insults for all to hear. A subplot evolves between Abelardo (the stranger), Celeste (a young woman who is chained inside her father's house to stop her running away), and José (a young man).

The film portrays the 1952 revolution and 1980 coup in Bolivia through the lives of two brothers, Juan José and Martín. Juan José, the legitimate son of Luís, is transformed, by his experiences as a youth in 1950s, to become a boss of one of the groups of paramilitaries during the 1980 coup. Martín, the illegitimate son of Luís and an indigenous peasant, becomes a trade union leader during that period.

Jesús sits down at his office desk one day and suffers a heart attack; Marcos Loayza's film follows Jesús in the immediate aftermath.