Gloria is a housewife living in poverty with her family and the only one providing for the family with her job of cleaning. Her marriage to Antonio is slowly falling apart as he openly shows his obsession with a lover from the past, a German singer called Ingrid.
Her two sons are also problematic, the older one wants to go back to his old village together with his grandmother to farm heroin, while the younger one sells his body to older men. Furthermore, her husband’s only talent is the talent of forgery. He met Ingrid as a driver, and he forged letters for her, allegedly addressed to Hitler.
Antonio openly tells Gloria that he will go and meet up with Ingrid and even physically attacks her. It’s the final straw for Gloria, and she hits him back, which ends up in him breaking his neck and dying. This goes undiscovered by the police. Gloria is left alone in her home and contemplates suicide. Her younger son suddenly returns, telling her he will take care of her.
