Villanueva de la Aguilas, Seville, carries on through the grey post-war years between the novenas of the devout and the repression of the victors. Currito lives there with his sisters, existing on the family income and a grocery shop selling black market goods. His everyday routine is disrupted when he hears that Rosa, La Culona (The Bum), who taught him how to write, is now a prostitute. Curro decides to redeem her, and in this task he has the help of the parish coadjutor, the local authorities and a member of the Civil Guard, whose job is to investigate what is going on in the brothel. The officer writes a detailed report of the ‘activities’ and the clients who frequent the whorehouse, and this report is passed around until it reaches the hands of the Civil Governor. Currito’s plans are overturned when the report gets mixed in with the dossiers due to be published in the Provincial Official Bulletin.