Once Upon a Time, one of the first animated films made in Spain, is a free adaptation of the story Cinderella by Charles Perrault. It was directed by Cirici Pellicer, pseudonym of Jaime Baguña Gil, and obtained recognition for the best children's film at the Venice Film Festival.
In the final days of the Spanish Civil War, a married couple of Republican refugees goes into hiding in a northern Spanish seaside town. While the wife stays there with their recently born child, the husband continues North to an uncertain future in France.
Arcos de la Frontera, in the early nineteenth century, when Napoleon's troops invaded Spain. In house Alvareda they are preparing the wedding of the daughter with a young man named Ventura. But the wedding is not held because Ventura escapes after killing a French soldier. Years later he returns and resumes his relationship with his fiancee. However, a great secret weighs in his heart, he feels an irrepressible passion for Rita, the wife of his brother in law.
Upon arrival in Barcelona, Miguel is fired from his job as a sailor and the financial problems which he will face from that moment will gradually introduce him into the world of crime. The little money they his wife Ines had previously saved , thanks to her hard work, will be quickly squandered by him.