[2] 1967: in Miranda, an imaginary Latin American country, ruled by the dictator General Abalorio, Arcibel Alegría (Darío Grandinetti), a journalist who writes articles about chess is taken to jail as political prisoner due to a mixed-up schedule of the newspaper he works for.
Arcibel, a non-political, rather solitary person, separated, and father of a two-year-old girl, will get to know a new reality he's never heard of, from inside the jail.
Arcibel spends his time learning and, luckily for him, playing chess with Palacios, his cell neighbor.
As time goes by, General Abalorio is elected president after democratic elections and all political prisoners are set free, except for Arcibel, who, due to a bureaucratic mess, will be confined to jail where the rest of the criminals are locked up.
Pablo (Diego Torres), his new cellmate, hardly knows how to read or write and he definitely doesn't play chess.