The plot begins after the Massacre in the Great Temple in Tenochtitlan, and follows a lone Aztec scribe named Topiltzin [toˈpiɬt͡sin], who is captured by Hernan Cortés and placed in the care of a friar.

Samuel Zyman's score was recorded by the Academy of Saint Martin in the Fields, conducted by David Snell and performed by Plácido Domingo.

[2] Released by Twentieth Century Fox in 1999, the film received positive reviews and was a Mexican box office success.

Refusing the new Christian religion and assaulting a friar, Topilzin is handed over to the army by his brother and brought to Hernán Cortés and his lover, Tecuichpo.

[7] The film's song-cycle Solamente Sola was descibred as "couched in effusive and seductive folk styles... a hauntingly evocative cycle on poems by Salvador Carrasco".