[5] Three men are competing for the love of La Garza, and also control of the Pez que Fuma: first Tobias, who is supplanted by Dimas, who in turn is pushed out by Jairo.

Interviewed in 2016, Chalbaud remembers the idea for the film coming from when he was told by someone, in some tellings, a friend,[4] in others, a taxi driver,[2] about a brothel called "El Pez que Fuma", and how the name stuck with him so much he had to write a story about it.

[4] Chalbaud spent time choosing the music over a two-month period he was stuck at home with a broken leg, which gave him the opportunity to carefully select which songs he needed.

[6] The film had begun life as a play, and returned to the stage in 2017 for a tour between the Teatro Teresa Carreño, Maracay Opera House, and National Theatre of Venezuela in a production directed by Ibrahim Guerra.

The defining notes of the production were the addition of vaudeville and expansion of certain characters, and it was redeveloped for the stage in order to develop a greater Venezuelan theatre aesthetic.

[7] There had previously been a Spanish remake to be set in Barcelona's "chinatown"[8] in the works, but in 2016 Chalbaud revoked permission because he wasn't convinced of its quality even though offered an "astronomical" amount of money.