When the parents of an upper-class girl and a lower-class boy forbid their children from playing with one another based strictly on each family's social standings, they underestimate the strength of the bond between two children who are still blind to the dividing lines that define the adult world. Malú is a girl from an upper-class background, and her best friend Jorgito is the son of poor but proud socialists. When Malú's single mother forbids her from interacting with Jorgito, citing his family as coarse and commonplace, Jorgito's infuriated mother reciprocates in kind. But neither parent realizes how deep the bond between the two children truly runs, and when Malu's mother announces plans to leave Cuba, they run away to the other side of the island together on a mission to locate Malu's father and convince him not to sign the forms that would allow her to do so.