Pepe Rey, Doña Perfecta's nephew, arrives in Orbajosa, a quiet and provincial city, with the task of building a reservoir. However, the presence of Pepe, a man of liberal ideas to whom unfounded revolutionary and even anticlerical intentions are attributed, is not well received in the town. So each of its inhabitants will have a reason not only to hate Pepe, but to want him to get out of there as soon as possible.