Óscar, the oldest, and his steel-willed mother run the family's grocery store called el Jardín (The Garden), which does a brisk business in the black market.

When Juanito is stricken with rheumatic fever while searching for his father, Ángela agrees to let him stay at el Jardin.

The years move on and Juanito has recovered from the rheumatic heart condition, he is totally disenchanted with his father.

Gloria discovers the truth and urges Juan to return home to marry Ángela so that the family will have a legitimate heir.

They throw a jacket over Juan's shoulders to cover up the blood from the bullet wound, and the film ends in a freeze frame of the photograph, offering no conclusions, but exposing all the hidden hypocrisy within this petty bourgeois family.