The action takes place in a typical Madrid sliding house where the characters who bring the film to life humbly live.

The rooms or dwellings are distributed around a neighborhood patio, the true protagonist of each scene; From the courtyard a staircase leads to the houses where Mary Pepa — an ironer by trade — and her aunt Josefa de Ella, and Felipe, an officer in a carpentry workshop, stay.

Mary Pepa is cheerful and flirtatious, very independent and because of her self-confidence and beauty she has revolutionized the entire neighborhood.

The other is the fence Don Leo, a middle-aged man who got rich from buying and selling stolen goods.

Outside the courtyard are the dramatic scenes of the robbery, of Don Leo's house and the blackmail he does to the boy by offering not to report him to the police in exchange for obtaining the favors of his sister.