[2] It stars Matías Quer, Ariel Mateluna, Manuela Martelli, and Aline Küppenheim alongside Federico Luppi.

Set in Santiago during the months leading up to the 1973 coup d'état led by General Augusto Pinochet – which overthrew Salvador Allende's socialist government – the film tells the story of two boys who attend an elite Catholic school: Gonzalo Infante – who belongs to a wealthy family with a European background – and Pedro Machuca – who is poor and comes from an indigenous background.

The working class was demanding social justice and significant changes to the country's socioeconomic structure after electing a socialist president.

While Gonzalo's father is sympathetic to the less fortunate and not part of the right-wing movement, he wants to take his family to Italy, where he often travels for his work at the UN FAO.

Gonzalo realizes that their friendship is against all odds when Silvana discovers them reading an issue of the magazine and comments on the implausibility of a white person being friends with an Indian.

Pedro's alcoholic father ridicules him, telling him that while his supposed friend will grow up to be wealthy, he will be stuck in the lower class, likely cleaning toilets for the rich.

The school's vegetable garden, which the students take care of, turns out to be a failure, jeopardizing the funding for Father McEnroe's project.

When he attends the first mass performed by a new priest, he receives communion but does not swallow the sacramental bread to preserve it from desecration and declares the place profane.

Gonzalo finds himself dragged into the chaos and struggles to convince a soldier that he does not belong there until he shows them his nice clothing and fair complexion.