Moncho develops a close relationship with his teacher Don Gregorio (Fernando Fernán Gómez), who introduces the boy to different things in the world.

[1] In a Galician town in the 1930s, a young boy, Moncho, goes to school for the first time and is taught by Don Gregorio about life and literature.

At this period in Spain, the Republican and the Nationalist factions are fighting a civil war, forcing people to take sides.

Moncho's mother is lukewarm towards the Republic, her main concern being belief in God; she eventually sides with the Nationalist rebels.

In order to protect themselves, the family goes to the town square to jeer the captured Republicans as they are paraded out of the courthouse and put on a truck.