Álvaro is an obsessive admirer of the tango singer Carlos Gardel. He collects memorabilia of his long-deceased idol and envelops himself in a sound world through old tape recordings of Gardel's distinctive, yearning voice, a world that no one else seems to want to enter. Claudia, Álvaro's wife, has long since separated from him; only their son Nuno still occasionally spends the night with his father when Claudia wants to be alone with her new boyfriend. Nuno is jealous of him and does not like his father either; Nuno's pain, misfortune, and helplessness ultimately culminate in his heroin addiction. Although relatives make half-hearted attempts to help the boy, they would ultimately be glad to be rid of him and each other. However, when Nuno dies, it changes little about the entanglements in which the family is caught: new alliances arise from feelings of guilt.