The story of Andrea and Antonio, two young people of different social class yet equal high ideals, whose lives are dramatically affected by the Spanish Civil War and the first bitter years of the post-war era. Only through sacrifice, struggle and solidarity will it be possible for them to regain their lost freedom and fulfil their love for one another, though this may require leaving a Spain which has become a dangerous place for those who didn’t side with Franco during the revolt. It is the story of people who, despite their youth, will hold strong to their ideals and fight to the end to defend them, however divergent. Following a prologue that begins in the weeks prior to the military uprising, the first season embraces the period between the entry of the rebel troops into Madrid (March 1939) and the end of World War II (August 1945). The second season treats the period between the autumn of 1945 and the spring of 1948, the first years of one of the most difficult periods of the postwar era: Spain’s isolation from the world. Though the narrative continues through characters and situations from Season 1, the second season is perfectly self-contained. The unifying element is the cocktail bar run by Paloma: a venue that epitomises the many others that were functioning in Madrid at that time. A large part of the stories unfold here, where two worlds come together: the world of the señoritos and other frequenters of Madrid’s nightlife – artistes, bull-fighters, writers – in which Paloma now moves, and the world of the popular classes, whose hunger and need drive them to dream of bettering their situation through a lottery win or the football pools. Two worlds in contrast, from which is woven a tapestry of stories about human emotion and endeavour. The third season bridges a somewhat briefer time span. Commencing just months after the end of previous season, in the summer of 1948 following the re-opening of the French border, it runs until the spring of 1950 when, with the dawn of a new decade, the international embargo against Franco’s regime is lifted and the UN revokes the resolution encouraging the removal of ambassadors from Spain. It is a period in which the Spanish economy begins to break the restraining bonds of the autarchy, but in which the first timid developments generate the first serious social and labour conflicts, which the dictatorship strives to silence through strict censorship. The universities also awaken from their lethargy with the arrival of a new generation of students that, hesitantly at first and later becoming more discrepant, begins to consider the need to open up new spaces for freedom in a rigid and stagnant Spanish society. The protagonist of the third season is Alicia, the daughter of an exiled jurist who dies on his return to Spain leaving Alicia in the care of her extremely conservative aunt and uncle, who don’t look kindly upon her studying or accept her ways, which they consider too “liberal”. Alicia juggles her studies with a job as translator at a film production company. Here, she meets Fernando, an older man whom she feels attracted to but at the same time repelled by his apparent frivolity. What Alicia doesn’t know is that Fernando is hiding a dark secret behind his public façade. One of Alicia’s professors, the disillusioned and sceptical widower, Alvaro, will be dazzled by her intelligence and strong character and becomes her mentor. Guiding Alicia through her studies, Alvaro also regains his own enthusiasm for life. The fourth season begins at the end of 1950. New winds of modernity have blown into the Plaza de los Frutos. Some time ago the Rivas department store took up premises near by, bringing a change to the lives of our characters and new faces and families to the neighbourhood. We find Manolita now working as a sales assistant at the new store. And there’s Sole and her husband, Big Juanito, and their two kids. And Little Juanito, whose ardent love for Julieta will drag him into a bottomless pit of despair. La quinta temporada empieza en abril de 1952. En la plaza de los Frutos, sus vecinos vivirán con alegría y esperanza el fin del racionamiento en España. Simbólicamente se cierra, con este hecho, el periodo más duro de postguerra. Esta temporada abarcará hasta los últimos meses de 1953, período en el que se producen hechos tan significativos como la firma del acuerdo con los EEUU, pero también del Concordato con la Santa Sede. Y con nuevos tiempos empiezan nuevas historias. Teresa y Héctor son ahora marido y mujer. Ana y Alfonso también se han casado y son la imagen de la felicidad y el éxito. Se han trasladado a un nuevo barrio donde viven, puerta con puerta, con Abel y Cristina. También comienzan a tratar con el doctor Mauricio Salcedo, que tiene su consulta en la misma finca. Abel, abogado, visita a menudo en la cárcel a su primo Salvador, un escritor cuya carrera, iniciada en la Guerra Civil, quedó truncada tras ser detenido y condenado a muerte pocos meses después de acabada la guerra. El boxeo y el mundo que lo rodea tendrán un peso estacado en los nuevos capítulos, de la mano de Alfonso, volcado en su carrera como boxeador. La sexta temporada arranca en el otoño de 1954 coincidiendo con las elecciones municipales convocadas por un Régimen que se sabe cada día más fuerte, y concluye a finales de 1955, con el ingreso de España en las Naciones Unidas: el aislamiento ha terminado y el franquismo se dispone a perpetuarse. Al barrio madrileño que ya conocemos, donde los entrañables propietarios El Asturiano siguen regentando su negocio, llega Irene Medina, española de nacimiento, que fija su residencia junto a su marido Ubaldo Ramos, antiguo agregado comercial de la embajada guatemalteca, exiliado tras el golpe de estado ocurrido en su país. La vuelta a España supone para Irene un reencuentro con sus orígenes, truncados cuando era niña con el asesinato de su madre al inicio de la guerra civil española, el posterior exilio a Rusia y los traumas derivados tras una detención que la lleva al campo de concentración de Auschwitz. Marcada por estas dramáticas vivencias, Irene trata de construir una vida nueva al lado de su marido hasta que el destino quiere que se encuentre con los tres hombres involucrados, de una otra forma, en su infortunio. A partir de ese momento una idea dominará todos los actos de nuestra protagonista: la necesidad de terminar con la vida de las tres personas que marcaron su pasado. Tan sólo el inesperado amor con un joven diez años menor que Irene operará en contra del deseo de venganza; porque ese joven no es otro que el hijo de Andrés Hernández, uno de los tres hombres a los que ella desea matar…