[1] Set mostly in the old quarter of 1940s Barcelona, the film centers in a young rag and bone merchant who falls in love with a prostitute.

In the post Spanish Civil War years, Catalan kids would sit in circles among the ruins and tell stories, known as "aventis" open-ended narratives drifting back and forth through time.

Laced with horror and perversity, these tales mix war stories, local gossip, comic book characters, fantasy and real events.

In 1970, Nito, a medical examiner assistant and sister Paulina, a nurse-nun (who grew up together, and now are co-workers in a hospital) identify the corpse of a couple who had drowned during a car accident.

The dead man is Daniel Javaloyes "Java", one of the main characters of the "aventis" of their childhood and adolescence.

The discovery of Java's body (long presumed dead) leads them to remember what had happened decades before.

To make some money, the hardened Java performs perverse sexual acts for the voyeuristic pleasure of Don Conrado, a rich sadistic man, who uses a wheelchair after being wounded during the war.

He yearns to see his girlfriend, Aurora Nin, again, whose identity would be blended with Ramona's in the stories told by Sarnita, one of the kids in Java's neighborhood.

Java wants to be an actor and blackmails Fueguiña in order to take the part of the devil in the play.

During the war, Marcos, fighting for the Republic, takes revenge on Don Conrado's brutality towards his girlfriend Aurora Nin.

Palau, the leader of the gang has chosen his target: Menchu, a bleach blonde prostitute who works for the elite Falangist of the city.

[6] Producer Enrique Viciano suggested a film adaptation of a novel by Catalan author Juan Marsé to director Vicente Aranda, who had previously adapted Marsé's novel The Girl with the Golden Panties, making it into an art house hit.

[9] Victoria Abril was six months pregnant when she shot the brutal sex scene with Jorge Sanz.

It was issued on DVD by Vanguard Cinema in May 2005 as Si te dicen que caí (If They Tell you I Fell), in Spanish with English subtitles.