New York, 1949
An encounter with a troubled child helps Spanish Republican veteran and exile Gonzalo Llorente see "The Big Picture."
Madrid, 1981
On February 23, guardias civiles storm the Spanish parliament and threaten to restore the dictatorship. Carlos Tejada, living in quiet retirement, must decide once more whether to support an armed coup. And with his grandson missing on the streets of Madrid, the deputies inside the parliament remain "Hostages."
San Juan, 1983
University student Carlito comes to Puerto Rico from Madrid to track down Republican Gonzalo Llorente and interview him for a history thesis about the Spanish Civil War. But when the young Spaniard meets the veteran, he learns that the shadows of his family history still hang over "The New World."
Madrid, 2003
"If something goes wrong, try to give us twenty-four hours." The guerrillas who resisted the Franco dictatorship all knew that if they were captured they had to withstand torture for twenty-four hours to give their comrades a chance to escape. Few people remember the grim, old saying in sleek and prosperous twenty-first century Madrid. But Carlos Tejada Alonso y Leon still remembers "The Twenty-Four Hour Limit."