**SPOILERS** With the Fascist Franco forces overrunning Spain, in March 1939, this orphanage run by a group of loyal Spanish Republicans is in danger of being taken over with it's staff shot for supporting the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War. The couple running the orphanage Casares and Carmen, who lost her right leg in the war, are secretly buying the Republican Forces arms with a large stash of gold bars and now plan to leave the country before Franco takes over.
It's there in the orphanage that young Carlos is sent to be looked after. It's also there where he's contacted by one of the orphans who disappeared when the orphanage was bombed by Fascist war planes about a year ago. It turns out that Carlos is given the same bed ,#12, that Santi slept in before he disappeared from the orphanage. That get's Jamie, a orphan who was a friend of Santi, very mad at him.
It turns out that the night that Santi disappeared a huge bomb, dropped from a plane, borrowed itself into the grounds of the orphanage as if to remind everyone about Santi's fate. We also later learn that Jamie was at the scene that night and saw what happened to his friend Santi and kept it a secret all this time until Carlos arrived.
Carlos starts to see an aberration at the orphanage the first evening he's there that turns out to be Santi's ghost. Santi seems to be trying to contact and tell Carlos what happened to him, it's by now obvious that he's dead, and even more important just who killed him. Wanting to have his killer brought to justice Santi guides Carlos to a former orphan, and now janitor of the orphanage, Jicinto who it turns out was robbing the safe where Carman kept the gold bars. One evening Santi caught him in the act and that lead to Jicinto accidentally, by slamming his head against a brick wall, killing him. Unknown to Jicinto Santi's friend Jamie was also at he scene and saw the whole thing.
Jicinto hid Santi's body in a pool inside the orphanage but now the soul, or ghost, of Satni was breaking loose and getting in touch with Carlos. Jicinto for the time being is having a affair with Carmen behind Casares' back and is planning, with a number of his cohorts, to win over her confidence. This in order for him to get the key to rob her of the gold bars she has locked up in her safe. Everything comes together in the movie when the Fascists begin to consolidate their gains and are about to drive the Republican Forces out of Spain.
Casares going into town sees that the Fascists have taken it over and one of his fellow Republicans, Ayala, had been captured and is about to be executed. This gets Casares to think that the Fascists have gotten the truth out of Ayala about his orphanage being a front for getting arms to the Republican Forces. Getting back Casares warn Carman that she, and him, will have to leave the country right away before the Fascists come over and put them both against a wall and shoot them.
It's then, during all this confusion, when Jicinto tries to get the key to the safe where Carmen keeps the gold only to have her tell him to get lost. Carmen had already figured Jicinto, who stole the gold bars, out for the back-stabbing swine that he is. Casares kicks Jicinto out of the orphanage, at gun point, only to have him sneak back in and blow the entire place up killing a number of people including Carman. Jicinto's fiancée, a teacher at the orphanage, Conchita who also didn't realize what a swine he was also ends up being killed by him when she doesn't want to go along with him and his friends in getting the gold bars.
Jicinto back at the now burnt out and battered orphanage to get the gold bars find that their gone, Carmen hid them in her wooden leg, and with his fellow cooks gone,they also had enough of him, and Casares dying from his wounds, that he receives in Jicinto blowing up the orphanage, Jicinto's left all by himself. Not knowing that all this was arraigned by Santi, from the great beyond, to get him into a trap that he set for him.
Jicinto finds the gold bars but he's also found by the dead Santi who together with the remaining orphans, including Carlos & Jamie, have him pay for what he did, not only to Santi but to everyone else at the orphanage.
It's there in the orphanage that young Carlos is sent to be looked after. It's also there where he's contacted by one of the orphans who disappeared when the orphanage was bombed by Fascist war planes about a year ago. It turns out that Carlos is given the same bed ,#12, that Santi slept in before he disappeared from the orphanage. That get's Jamie, a orphan who was a friend of Santi, very mad at him.
It turns out that the night that Santi disappeared a huge bomb, dropped from a plane, borrowed itself into the grounds of the orphanage as if to remind everyone about Santi's fate. We also later learn that Jamie was at the scene that night and saw what happened to his friend Santi and kept it a secret all this time until Carlos arrived.
Carlos starts to see an aberration at the orphanage the first evening he's there that turns out to be Santi's ghost. Santi seems to be trying to contact and tell Carlos what happened to him, it's by now obvious that he's dead, and even more important just who killed him. Wanting to have his killer brought to justice Santi guides Carlos to a former orphan, and now janitor of the orphanage, Jicinto who it turns out was robbing the safe where Carman kept the gold bars. One evening Santi caught him in the act and that lead to Jicinto accidentally, by slamming his head against a brick wall, killing him. Unknown to Jicinto Santi's friend Jamie was also at he scene and saw the whole thing.
Jicinto hid Santi's body in a pool inside the orphanage but now the soul, or ghost, of Satni was breaking loose and getting in touch with Carlos. Jicinto for the time being is having a affair with Carmen behind Casares' back and is planning, with a number of his cohorts, to win over her confidence. This in order for him to get the key to rob her of the gold bars she has locked up in her safe. Everything comes together in the movie when the Fascists begin to consolidate their gains and are about to drive the Republican Forces out of Spain.
Casares going into town sees that the Fascists have taken it over and one of his fellow Republicans, Ayala, had been captured and is about to be executed. This gets Casares to think that the Fascists have gotten the truth out of Ayala about his orphanage being a front for getting arms to the Republican Forces. Getting back Casares warn Carman that she, and him, will have to leave the country right away before the Fascists come over and put them both against a wall and shoot them.
It's then, during all this confusion, when Jicinto tries to get the key to the safe where Carmen keeps the gold only to have her tell him to get lost. Carmen had already figured Jicinto, who stole the gold bars, out for the back-stabbing swine that he is. Casares kicks Jicinto out of the orphanage, at gun point, only to have him sneak back in and blow the entire place up killing a number of people including Carman. Jicinto's fiancée, a teacher at the orphanage, Conchita who also didn't realize what a swine he was also ends up being killed by him when she doesn't want to go along with him and his friends in getting the gold bars.
Jicinto back at the now burnt out and battered orphanage to get the gold bars find that their gone, Carmen hid them in her wooden leg, and with his fellow cooks gone,they also had enough of him, and Casares dying from his wounds, that he receives in Jicinto blowing up the orphanage, Jicinto's left all by himself. Not knowing that all this was arraigned by Santi, from the great beyond, to get him into a trap that he set for him.
Jicinto finds the gold bars but he's also found by the dead Santi who together with the remaining orphans, including Carlos & Jamie, have him pay for what he did, not only to Santi but to everyone else at the orphanage.