A single mother in Madrid sees her only son die on his 17th birthday as he runs to seek an actress"s autograph. She goes to Barcelona to find the lad"s father, a transvestite named Lola who does not know he has a child. First she finds her friend, Agrado, also a transvestite; through him she meets Rosa, a young nun bound for El Salvador, and by happenstance becomes the personal assistant of Huma Rojo, the actress her son admired. She helps Huma manage Nina, the co-star and Huma"s lover, and she becomes Rosa"s caretaker during a dicey pregnancy. With echoes of Lorca, All About Eve, and A Streetcar Named Desire, the mothers (and fathers and actors) live out grief, love, and friendship.