In 1980, Madrid homicide detectives Pedro Suarez and Juan Robles are sent to a 'backwater' town on the Guadalquivir Marshes in Spain's 'Deep South' to investigate the disappearance of two teenage sisters during the town's festivities. Pedro, openly critical of Spain's past during Francoist Spain, has a problem with authority figures, while Juan seems not to care, though he has a troubled past of his own.