A bittersweet dissection of machismo and homophobia in Latin America, the script is based on a novel by noted Chilean writer José Donoso and co-written by Manuel Puig. In an isolated town dominated by a corrupt politico, the bordello, though condemned by the self-righteous, is the only place provided with electricity. La Manuela, a transvestite, lives in the brothel which is run by his daughter, La Japonesita. When she is roughly treated by a customer, La Manuela (Los Olvidados' Roberto Cobo in an outstanding performance) steps in and distracts him with an erotic dance in Andalusian drag. The customer's response is impassioned. "This hell is governed by the Father figure, the politician who, like the father in The Castle of Purity, manipulates characters as he wishes, creating a world in his own likeness: desolation. But, unlike the characters in The Castle of Purity, the inhabitants of this hell remain in their confinement by their own free will...(a will) to accept hell as something interior." (Tomás Pérez Turrent)