On a hot summer day in a vacant Madrid during a period of social and political transition in Spain, Miguel (Jos Sacristn), a feared and respected journalist, sets up a meeting with ngela (Mara Valverde), a young journalism student, in a friend's studio. His intentions are clearly sexual; hers are less clear. Chance events them together for more time than they would have chosen: locked in a bathroom, naked, without the possibility of escape.

Removed from the outside world, the pair, who represent polarized generations, are pitted in an uneven duel involving age, intellect, ambition and experience. The political and social context of the period provides the back ground to the power shifts that continually take place between them over twenty-four hours.