The film centers on a Spanish tapas bar and the love lives of the loosely interconnected people in the neighborhood surrounding the bar. The pairs of lovers include a middle aged woman and a young man; an elderly, drug dealing woman and her terminally ill husband in poor health; the tapas bar owner and his estranged wife; and two Chinese immigrants.

A playboy has the tables turned on him when he finds himself being used as a plaything by an undesirable woman.

The daughter of an Englishman and an Andalusian woman, Juanita rejects the historical changes taking place in Tangier.She lives alone in this "Paradise lost", surrounded by her sister Elena; Esther, her close friend who dedicates her entire life to an impossible love affair with a Moroccan; and Hamruch the housemaid, who disappears one day without saying a word. The Spanish Civil War, WWII with the arrival of refugees from Europe, and the Moroccan independence finally returns the city to its Arab origins. Juanita's tragedy lies in not realizing that her world is destined to disappear by the destructive and rejuvenating force of History.

Pupil Abel is the victim of Laura's nasty prank, yet gets accidentally blamed and overreacts. His ma withdraws him from school and gets him a job as lift-boy. But its' a special lift: when he pushes the forbidden green button, it takes him, Laura, Jozias Tump and Maria Klaterhoen to Manhattan. There he's mistaken by a rich woman who looks like his mother for her long missing son Johnny. When a police helicopter comes to tow the lift cabin, the Dutchmen get back in. It takes them to a Latin American country, Perugona. The new revolutionary leader realizes presidents live about one year, so he gives the job to Mr. Tump, who saved his life. The news coverage attracts Abel's and Johnny's family, in time for an even weirder finale.

Year 1987. Rubén is a ten-year-old boy who grows up playing tag in the village. He lives with his parents and his grandmother, with whom he spends the afternoons. Rosa tries to keep her grandson as a child and not to be aware of the dramatic situation at home, which is spoken about in a low voice.