Working from Guy de Maupassant's story "Le Port," and referring to the classic 1933 Mexican film that scandalized audiences, Ripstein creates an unflinching and unforgettable portrait of seedy port life, tapping into a disturbing taboo, incest. Three characters tell three related stories of struggle and poverty, of destiny and the fight to resist it. "El Marro," a sailor who has abandoned ship and taken refuge in a brothel, is a weaver of impossible dreams; Perla is a girl of angelic beauty, the star of the whorehouse; Tomasa is a desperate older prostitute who knows that both are her children. With no single episode containing the entire story, the parts are linked by a common view of poverty-and the fantasy world the human imagination creates to escape it.