Madrid in the 40s: in an old neighborhood tavern, every first Friday of the month at nightfall Moor Hauma organizes a unique and secret card game. The Caudillo, Francisco Franco, meets with several friends of Africa's campaign for a game.
The story of a Spanish Cardinal who is told he only has one more year to live. He decides to return to his hometown, after an absence of 30 years, to sort out his affairs.
In the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War, Ana, a sensitive seven-year-old girl in a rural Spanish hamlet is traumatized after a traveling projectionist screens a print of James Whale's 1931 "Frankenstein" for the village. The youngster is profoundly disturbed by the scenes in which the monster murders the little girl and is later killed himself by the villagers. She questions her sister about the profundities of life and death and believes her older sibling when she tells her that the monster is not dead, but exists as a spirit inhabiting a nearby barn. When a Loyalist soldier, a fugitive from Franco's victorious army, hides out in the barn, Ana crosses from reality into a fantasy world of her own.
Karina arrives to a mansion to work as a governess of a group of singing children. She must take care of their education, and she decides to use music to teach them. Meanwhile, the record company where the children work is busy with another project. Their biggest star, Marta, is getting ready a song to represent Spain in the Eurovision Song Contest 1971. Carlos, the composer of the song, titled "En un mundo nuevo" ("In a new world") meets Karina in the mansion and starts feeling affection to the girl, something Marta, who is Carlos' girlfriend doesn't like at all. She is also jealous of Karina for her musical abilities, and when one day Marta catches Karina with Carlos singing a song composed for the governess, she gives him an ultimatum, if Karina doesn't leave the mansion at once, she will break her contract with the record company and won't sing "En un mundo nuevo" in the Eurovision Song Contest...