Young Carmen Castro (Maricel Soriano) is unmarried and pregnant and informs her cousin Stella (Amy Austria) about her situation. Stella scoffs and recommends abortion, as does Jerry, the child's father. Her overly-religious landlady Juling (Charito Solis), who is busy juggling her religious aims and her legal quarrel with the poor families illegally living on her land, strongly suggests that she keep the baby, as killing it would be a sin against God. Carmen sees signs that would seemingly suggest an answer to her difficult decision. Her poor neighbors struggle for money to feed their children. She sees a physically malformed child vending goods outside the church. She loses her job at a financing company due to the struggling economy during that time. Carmen eventually decides to have an abortion in a deeply moving scene with close-up shots of the cold steel utensils.