Fernando Aguirre

A small Spanish town, Villar del Río, is alerted to the upcoming visit of American diplomats and its ruling townsmen begin preparations to impress the American visitors, in the hopes of benefiting under the Marshall Plan. Hoping to demonstrate the side of Spanish culture with which the visiting foreign officials would be more familiarized, the Castilian citizens don unfamiliar Andalusian costumes, hire a renowned flamenco performer, and re-decorate their town in Andalusian style, meantime waiting for their uncertain arrival.

The finding of a wallet with a lot of money is the common theme of four stories, featuring a shoeshine from Seville, a clerk from Salamanca, a bullfighter from Cuenca and a newspapers seller from Paris.

Juan and Carmen are a humble couple living in Madrid. She does the housework and he works as an electrician in a film studio. Their dreams of wellness come true when they win a contest sponsored by a soap brand.

Mary Ellen travels abroad and ends up marrying a Count while she is intoxicated. The Count disappears and with the aid of her father, George, she tracks down his address in the Casbah, only to discover he was an impostor. The real count is Henri, a nondescript man with a shrewd business sense. Mary Ellen pays him to carry on the masquerade of being her husband so she can get a divorce.

The old hidalgo Don Alonso Quijano, maddened by the excessive reading of books on chivalry and determined to become a famous and heroic knight-errant, leaves his village and sets out on the road in search of adventure, accompanied by his faithful friend Sancho Panza.

Javier Mendoza a Catholic missionary established in Alaska, recalls, when about to die, the years of his youth and his relationship with his family and friends.