27-year-old Elisa's dreams of opening a beauty parlour in the poshest part of Montevideo go up in the air on finding herself with no roof, no lover, no job and no cash. Her best friend, Lulú, gets her a place in Doña Jaqueline's whorehouse, where she meets Plácido, head of the same setup in Spain. Elisa convinces Plácido to take her to Barcelona, where she realises she is being exploited. Marcelo, a young police superintendent, decides to arrest Plácido for the death of a Brasilian transvestite. At the trial, Elisa gives evidence against Plácido and returns to Uruguay with Marcelo. Stopped at Montevideo airport for falsifying documents, Marcelo manages to get her free by convincing the Spanish ambassador to put in a good word for her with the President of the Republic.