The plot is an adaptation of the autobiographical book trilogy "The Forging of a Rebel" ("La forja", "La ruta" and "La llama"). Tracking the life of Arturo Barea (a left-wing Republican), it spans from 1907 to the Fall of Madrid to the Francoist forces in April 1939, in the last rales of the Spanish Civil War. It also accounts for the period when the leading character was destined for military conscription in the midst of the Moroccan War.