A single mother in Madrid sees her only son die on his 17th birthday as he runs to seek an actress`s autograph. She goes to Barcelona to find the lad`s father a transvestite named Lola who does not know he has a child. First she finds her friend Agrado also a transvestite; through him she meets Rosa a young nun bound for El Salvador and by happenstance becomes the personal assistant of Huma Rojo the actress her son admired. She helps Huma manage Nina the co-star and Huma`s lover and she becomes Rosa`s caretaker during a dicey pregnancy. With echoes of Lorca "All About Eve" and "Streetcar Named Desire" the mothers (and fathers and actors) live out grief love and friendship.