In an old neighbourhood tavern, on the first Friday of every month, Hauma the Moor organises a secret card game of "mus", held at nightfall. The players, friends from the African campaign, start arriving : Mr Francisco Franco Bahamonde ; Longinos, the General's faithful friend ; "Huevines" regimental "father" to a Company of Regulars and also father to a large brood born to his so-called "nièce" ; and Miguel, former general under the Generalisimo, missing an arm, catholic and envious. Outside on the streets, Longino's son, Manuel, discovers his mother, though they say she was dead, in the moving pictures of Gilda up on the screen. Each of them carrie a secret. Longino's is to find out who gave the order to the regiment to rape his wife. General's Franco is to avoid the bullet a woman, given up for dead, has in stock for him. One imprecise day during that era, a flesh-and-blood Gilda, appears on the streets of Madrid. Something changes in the Head of State manner. His harsh belligerence, the metallic tone of his voice, even is gestures, becomes less commanding then before. Manuel is a happy boy now. Since that time, a thousand faces of Gilda have been seen throughout Spanish Territory.