Set in Spain, the story follows a girl known as Chica (チカ, Chika), who after being betrayed by her same-sex lover, Maria (マリア), decides to commit suicide.

Hopeless, wandering down the road in the rain at night, Chica is about to be run over by a car driven by a man named Antonio (アントニオ).

Antonio decides to help and takes her to his home; the next morning, Chica, mad at him because he did not kill her and wondering if Maria left her for being a woman, asks him if things would have been different if she were a man.

There, Chica sees a corrida de toros, where a bull is killed; Chica, however, without feeling discouraged about what she saw, driven by her desire to die and by the intention to prove that a woman can become a matador, decides to start her training as a bullfighter under Antonio's instructions.

Written and illustrated by Est Em, Golondrina was serialized in Shogakukan's seinen manga magazine Monthly Ikki from June 25, 2011,[2][3][4] to September 25, 2014,[5][6] when the magazine ceased its publication and it was announced that series would continue publication via collected tankōbon volumes.