7 year-old boy Ernesto intrigues people around him for several reasons. Despite such a young age, he looks like a man on his 40's and also seems a little more intelligent than any of his peers - and the latter fact is what causes him to quit school, refusing to attend it because he doesn't want to learn the things he does not know. His family is very supportive of his actions, even though they don't have any clue of what's to become of him; at the same time the school headmaster and a journalist are concerned about Ernesto's real motivations for leaving school.