In 1973 in Santiago, Chile, Father McEnroe, the director of a private school, decides to integrate underprivileged native children into his classes. Pedro, whose family lives in shantytown, forms a friendship with Gonzalo, a middle class boy. Despite the differences in their family's situations, the two eleven-year-old kids become inseparable. Gonzalo even experiences his first feelings of love for Silvana, Pedro's teenage cousin.
But the city is shaken by political demonstrations opposing the partisans of the socialist regime, which has been in power for the past two years. The stormy atmosphere winds up having an effect on Gonzalo and Pedro's friendship.