In 1920s Havana, Rachel is a showgirl who longs to become a headliner at the incredibly popular Alhambra theater. On her way to attain that, she loses the love of her life and falls into the clutches of a passion that nearly destroys her career.

Jose Luis, a young boy with aspirations to become a scriptwriter and director of cinema, is dazzled on having known the beautiful Sissy. To impress her, he appears as the director who looks for a not professional actress. She, that the whole life has dreamed of being 'discovered' but that it is not naive with men, pretends not to be interested. They begin a relationship in wich both are not as they wanted to be.

In 19th century Cuba, runaway African slaves known as 'Cimarrons' hiding in settlements in the eastern mountains. But discord among the Cimarrons is sown by a limited offer of freedom from the Spanish. Maluala is part of a trilogy of films about Cuba's slave uprisings made by Sergio Giral, the best known Afro-Cuban director.

In 1950s Havana, a romance blooms between two young revolutionaries whose clandestine printing press publishes pamphlets meant to stir up rebellion against the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista. As their popularity grows, so, too, does their revolutionary zeal and their desire to mobilize other urban guerilla units.

Marc Huestis edits interviews with 15 men, including himself, around a set of topics starting with "what is sex?" The men are gay, living in or near San Francisco. They talk about their first sexual experiences, the gay scene in San Francisco in the late 1970s, the pall cast by AIDS, the safe-sex movement, getting into serious relationships, the illness and death of partners, pornography, S/M and pain, race and stereotypes, personal fantasies, and bliss. Huestis has a thesis, that sex is going to be with us, so how best do we embrace it? His 15 subjects, archival footage, clips from porn films, and close-up looks at men loving men flesh out various answers.

When the Revolution nationalizes the nickel processing plant in Moa, the Cuban technicians who were working with the Americans leave the country. An engineer manages to get it up and running.