The Death of a Cyclist begins with the return of Juan Fernandez Soler (Alberto Closas), a university professor, and María Jose (Lucia Bosè), a wealthy married woman, from an adulterous endeavor.

The suspense of these anxieties is exacerbated by the meddling Rafa (Carlos Casaravilla), who is a lowly art critic that has spent the past few months observing the socialites that he has been surrounding himself with.

Juan and María Jose's differing responses to the cyclist's death are significant in the film's commentary surrounding the upper class.

[1] Film critic Robert Koehler wrote of the director's goals when shooting the film, "With the economy of Tourneur and Walsh, Bardem immediately establishes in the opening frames of Death of a Cyclist not only the incident to which the title refers, but also, more crucially, that lovers Juan (Alberto Closas) and María José (Lucia Bosé) are doomed...

The Rafa-María José-Miguel interplay is sprinkled with irony, sarcasm, and suggestion, and comes to a boil with the help of social satire, revenge, paranoia, and suspicion.

Contrary to the film's reputation as a stark rebuke of Franco-era hypocrisy and corruption, Death of a Cyclist is perhaps most surprising and memorable for this half-terrifying, half-comical roundelay of three people caught in a web of misunderstanding (María José mistakenly convinced that Rafa witnessed something of the bicycle accident) and distrust (each of them for the other).

Through the course of events Juan will be forced to interlope within the reality of the cyclist and his family, while María José will be further ensconced in the delicate net of her delusion.