An Irish governess comes to work at the aristocratic Spanish household of Dr. Areavaga. She initially goes about doing what all good movie governesses do, namely winning the affection of the children while offending most everyone else. At first, she manages to steer clear of the Areavagas' incendiary politics, bookended by the doctor's socialist sympathies on the one hand and his wife's fascistic leanings on the other. With the arrival of the eldest son, a fervently anti-Franco member of the national assembly, she finds herself increasingly unable to keep an acceptable emotional distance from the family and, by extension, from Spain.
