Sergi Lopez puts in a riveting performance as Joao, a Portuguese porn peddler who meets an older woman (Pedro Almodovar favorite Carmen Maura) who says she's on the run from her abusive husband (Federico Luppi). The story takes a number of dark twists and turns when it's revealed that the woman had an affair with her husband's business partner, who then died in a car accident, leaving secret messages on a tape in her possession.