On the morning of 20 November 1978 (
20-N), an elderly man in a coat resembling
Francisco Franco in his last years hitchhikes from the
Valley of the Fallen to Madrid. Around the same time, a radio report on the
French franc () is misunderstood as saying that dictator Francisco Franco has risen from the dead. The rest of the film are scenes showing how Spanish people react to the rumor amidst the
Spanish transition to democracy: • Communist leader
Santiago Carrillo dons a wig again and plans for an exile overseas. • The Organization of Iberian States meets to end up amending the
FIFA rules to allow football penalties to be decided democratically by the crowd. • A festival attended by openly gay men is fled by them. • Farmers are protesting for the situation of tomato production. They plan to take their protest to the
Ministry of Agriculture in Madrid, but nobody will hear them and their cars are seized by the police. • A union committee try to find a free date for a strike against the infidelity of the wife of one of the unionists with a rightist. • During the shooting of a pornographic film involving
bestiality, the producers renounce their careers. • An industrialist is driven to a business meeting. Terrorist bombs and holdups happen along the way. On arrival, the company is full of strikers. At the meeting, an
absurdist exchange of worthless shares is shown. • A theater diva rehearses a pro-Communist play. Upon hearing the rumor, she and the director remind their past productions of
José María Pemán's plays. • Socialist leader
Felipe González asks for a plane so he can flee to France. • Two prostitutes rejoice after their work is unionized. • Prime Minister
Adolfo Suárez dismisses the rumor and laments that Franco's expertise would be useful now. He takes out his old
Movimiento Nacional uniform. • In the village of Rebollar de la Mata, the modernist priest and the mayor play cards. An army unit returning from an exercise has to divert into the village. The priest recovers his pre-
Council vests and all the villagers welcome the surprised military convoy with
old flags. • A rally at
Plaza de Oriente in homage to Franco becomes a massive event. Several of the earlier characters cheer enthusiastically in Francoist paraphernalia. All timidly wait for an appearance of Franco from the balcony of
Palacio de Oriente. Next day, the elderly man is alone in the empty square. At nearby
Plaza de España, another elderly man recognizes that the future belongs to the younger and laments that the work of the old generation is not acknowledged anymore. The elderly Franco hitchhikes back to the Valley of the Fallen. ==Cast==