The story takes place in a town in the rural Andes - a place where visitors are rare. Three students from Lima, two boys and a girl -- Sebastián (played by the film's director), Nilo and Ivón have just arrived. They are embarking on a study of the dire poverty in the Ayacucho region. After wandering around long enough to be overtaken by the night, they find themselves wandering the empty streets of the village with no hope of finding a place to stay. They try pounding on doors to see if someone will let them in out of the cold, but no one answers them. Finally they see a mourning woman keening over the laid-out corpse of her brother. She lets them stay there, with her. And him - the dead man.