The movie tells about Pascual Duarte's life, born in 1902 and sentenced to death in 1937 for having killed his mother and Don Jesus, the wealthiest nester of the region. On the background, the Spanish events which will lead to the seizure of power by the popular front and the following victory of Francisco Franco. Based on the novel by the nobel Prize-winning José Cela, "La Familla de Pascual Duarte (1942), the movie was presented at Cannes Film Festival.