Madrid, 1936. A young man called Miguel Gila lives with his grandparents in a working-class neighborhood in Madrid.
Despite the family’s difficulties, the atmosphere in the home is one of happiness. Miguel enjoys accompanying his grandmother to the cinema, helping his grandfather with his woodwork and having adventures with his neighborhood friends, who are led by his best friend Pedro Tabares. Gila especially enjoys scribbling anywhere and everywhere he can. He’s ingenious, almost without trying.
But when war breaks out, it finds Miguel and his whole generation in the throws of youth, unprepared and without many fixed ideas. Miguel is just a scared kid, but spurred on by Pedro, he joins the war, but not without first promising his grandmother that he will return safe and sound and that he won’t leave his friend’s side.