On October 13, 1972, Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571, chartered to take a rugby team to Chile, crashes into a glacier in the heart of the Andes.

Set in a classical Uruguayan folk story, we follow El Negro, a young argentine man stepping into a new town. He seeks his fortune, but must face the town's true matriarch, Doña Ofelia, and her watchful cat, Mandinga.