In 1939, in a French prison camp, José Garcés of the defeated Spanish Republican army raises the spirits of his fellow prisoners by telling the story of the year he was 8 years old, 1911, in a small town in northeastern Spain. He was a rascal, baffling his father, always in trouble, and in love with Valentina, a neighbor girl. On his roof top at night he sends semaphore messages to her. He writes poems. He gets them into trouble, killing her father's breeding pigeons. When the two families camp at a decaying castle, his tutor, a sympathetic priest, tells him about the most valiant men, the saints, the heroes, and the poets. Already a poet, he learns a lesson about being a hero.
as Mosen Joaquín
as Pepe
as Valentina
as Valentina adulta
as Don José
as Doña Luisa
as Don Arturo
as Doña Julia
as Narrador
as Tía Ignacia
as Médico
as Pastor
as Garcés
as Cocinera
as Alcalde
as Guarda
as Pilar
as Maruja
as Concha
as Luisa
as Carrasco
as Colaso
as Julián
