It's hard to know how violence begins, it's impossible to know how it ends...

Based on real events during Christmas of 1944 in the Pacific coast port city of Manzanillo. Hotel manager Chinto loses his temper and assaults "Inés," the homosexual cook. Inés complains to the police, but when several patrolmen come to arrest Chinto, he pulls a pistol and shoots them. The authorities soon lay seige to the hotel; Chinto's employees, follow his orders without question and assist him in barricading the hotel's doors and windows.