The story revolves around Marcelino, an orphan abandoned as a baby on the steps of a monastery in nineteenth-century Spain. The monks raise the child, and Marcelino grows into a rowdy young boy. He has been warned by the monks not to visit the monastery attic, where a "very big man who will take him away" lives, but he ventures upstairs anyway, sees the man and tears off back down the stairs. At a festival, Marcelino causes havoc when he accidentally topples a pile of fruit and lets some animals loose. The new local mayor, a blacksmith whom the monks would not let adopt Marcelino because of his coarse behaviour, uses the incident as an excuse to try to shut down the monastery. Given the
silent treatment by the monks, Marcelino gathers up the courage to once again enter the attic, where he sees not a bogeyman, but a beautiful statue of
Christ on the Cross. Remarking that the statue looks hungry, Marcelino steals some bread and wine and offers it to the statue, which comes to life, descends from the Cross, and eats and drinks what the boy has brought him. The statue becomes Marcelino's best friend and begins to give him religious instruction. For his part, Marcelino realizes that the statue is Christ. The monks know something is strange when they notice bread and wine disappearing, and arrange to spy on Marcelino. One day, the statue notices that Marcelino is pensive and brooding instead of happy, and tells him that he would like to reward his kindness. Marcelino answers: "I want only to see my mother, and to see Yours after that". The statue cradles Marcelino in its arms, tells Marcelino to sleep - and Marcelino dies happy. The monks witness the miracle through a crack in the attic door and burst in just in time to see the dead Marcelino bathed in a heavenly glow. The statue returns to its place on the Cross, and Marcelino is buried underneath the chapel and venerated by all who visit the now flourishing monastery-turned-shrine. The main story is told in flashback by a monk (played by
Fernando Rey) to a dying girl for inspiration. The film ends with the monk entering the now completely remodelled
chapel in the monastery during
Mass, and saying to the crucifix once kept in the attic: "We have been speaking about You, O Lord", and then, to Marcelino's grave, which is situated nearby, "And about you, too, Marcelino." ==Cast==