Set during the Spanish Civil War, it centers on a fictional Andalusian actress (Penélope Cruz) making a film in Nazi Germany who becomes the object of Joseph Goebbels' attention.

In 1938, while Spain is in the grip of civil war, a film team from the territory held by Franco's rebels is invited to the co-production in Berlin of a musical set in 19th-century Andalusia, to be shot in separate Spanish and German versions.

Though she finds him repulsive and prefers the company of Blas, the married director of the Spanish version, she is made clear that for the sake of the project and of Hispano-German relations she must comply.

When she points out that the extras in the film look ridiculously inauthentic, being tall and fair-haired, they are replaced by short dark Jewish and Romani prisoners from a concentration camp, under armed SS guards.

A sequel, La reina de España (English: "The Queen of Spain"), starring Penélope Cruz and Jorge Sanz, was released on 25 November 2016.