Lola has just arrived home. She no longer expects to receive kisses when she enters the house, as when her children were young. Her daughter, Ana, is entranced by a music show on TV and wants to be like the glamorous TV presenter. Her son, Roberto, is late and has also been getting bad marks at school recently. Lola goes into the kitchen to prepare supper for herself, her husband and Roberto, only to find the dirty crockery left by her father, Anselmo, who has lived with them for the last five years, ever since his wife died. He was an emigrant in Argentina for half a century. Roberto comes home, having just summoned up the courage to kiss the girl he likes at school, Nuria, and ask her to go out with him. Ana tells him to go and see if their grandfather has had dinner yet, but when Roberto enters his bedroom, it is to find that his grandfather is lying dead on the bed, clutching a piece of paper in his hand.
In the neighbours’ house, Damián has just got home from a long day’s work and an hour at the local pub. He summons his whole family – his wife, Rosa, his three children, Ramón, Ricardo and Rita – to come and see what he has bought: a TV antenna that will enable them to watch their black-and-white television in any part of the house they like. It takes him a while to get the new antenna working, during which he shouts at his family and slaps the children, but they are used to this by now. Ramón is Roberto’s best friend and wishes they could have a colour TV like Roberto’s family. Damián’s mother, Carme, lives with them and comes into the living room. She has problems with her memory. Ramón receives a call from Roberto to say that his grandfather has died. When Ramón tells the others, his grandmother, Carme, says he has died again – the first time, it was she who killed him.
A wake is organized for Anselmo, who is laid out in a coffin in his bedroom. Lots of people come to pay their respects, including the parish priest, Don César. They studied together as children at the local seminary; Don César went on to become a priest, Anselmo emigrated to Argentina. It seems there was some kind of lingering resentment between them. Ramón brings Nuria round, so Roberto can see her. At this point, Ramón’s grandmother enters the house, goes straight to Anselmo’s bedroom and throws herself on the coffin with the words, “Forever, forever, forever.” Damián comes to take his mother home. Rosa is waiting at home. She and Damián were once very much in love, but Damián was jealous and accused her whenever other men looked at her. When she had the children, he didn’t want her to go back to work at the local factory, so she stayed at home. Money became a problem; she always has to ask for it and say how she has spent it. She is clearly unhappy. When Damián brings his mother into the kitchen, he leaves, and his mother, Carme, who most of the time suffers from dementia, abruptly tells Rosa this is not the place for Rosa, she doesn’t feel well and should leave.
After the funeral, Lola’s family return home, laughing at the priest’s inability to sing (one of the neighbours says it’s enough to make you not want to die, listening to the priest). At this point, Lola and her husband, Antonio, both of them lawyers, abruptly announce to the children that they are going to separate. Antonio will move out. They are just waiting for the new divorce law to be approved so they can formalize the new situation, but one of the justifications for a divorce will be abandoning the family home. The children are stunned. They had been waiting until Lola’s father died, since he wouldn’t have been able to understand it, having loved his own wife so much. Later on, Roberto suddenly remembers the piece of paper his grandfather had been holding in his hand on the day he died. He recovers the piece of paper from his shirt pocket and reads in his grandfather’s handwriting, “Tell me you love me.”
Ramón and Roberto have a secret hideaway, which they have fitted out with furniture, a fridge, magazines. Most of the stuff they have there is from Roberto, but Ramón has managed to get hold of a prize possession: a condom that is reputed to have come all the way from France. Ramón is waiting for Roberto to turn up and can’t stop thinking about Nuria, who he is attracted by. Generally speaking, his interest in girls is limited to how far he can get with them and whether they will go with him to their secret hut, but with Nuria it’s different, he finds her attractive and easy to talk to. He then wonders what it will be like when his own grandmother dies. She also emigrated, at the age of twenty-two to Uruguay, she wrote letters to her sweetheart back at home, Evaristo, and after ten years she returned and they got married. Roberto comes and informs Ramón that his parents are going to get separated. Roberto thinks it’s normal for two people who no longer love each other to divorce, but Ramón thinks they should stay together, otherwise there would only be four people still married in the world.
It is a Saturday, and Damián comes home drunk, having played some games at the local pub. The family sits down to eat and watch television. Spanish TV has been broadcasting in colour for a year, but Damián won’t splash out on a colour TV unless he can pay for it up front. Nor will he buy a washing machine to save Rosa having to wash everything by hand. They watch a news programme called Informe semanal, which emits a report about some disturbances in Buenos Aires. Damián’s mother appears to recognize all the places and says how happy she was all the years she lived there, on Tango Street. Rita corrects her and says she lived in Uruguay, not Argentina. Damián tells the children to keep quiet.
Lola goes through her father’s things with the help of Ana and Roberto. Lola and Ana sort through his clothes, while Roberto is entrusted with a trunk that contains his old possessions. There are artificial flowers, ceramic plates, two old books for learning how to read, folders with papers, cigar bands and two photo albums, in one of which he comes across a hidden photograph of a pretty young woman he assumes is his grandmother, but then realizes is not the same woman as in his grandfather’s wedding photos, so it must be someone else. Ana then hands him a small key she has found, together with another piece of paper that says, “Tell me you love me.” He rummages around in the trunk and finds a medium-sized box, which the key fits exactly. Meanwhile, Antonio has taken possession of a new office, where he has sofas, pictures of American skyscrapers and standing ashtrays. From the large window overlooking the street, he catches sight of Rosa and remembers how they used to hang out together, how she then fell in love with Damián, someone all her friends thought was unsuitable for her, and how Damián extended his control over her so that they rarely saw her anymore. Lola calls to say she will travel to Argentina with Roberto to sort out her father’s business affairs, and Antonio agrees to look after their daughter, Ana, in their absence.
Roberto wants to open his grandfather’s box in private, so takes it to the secret hideaway he shares with Ramón and hides it with the key and two pieces of paper on a shelf, but when he returns after school, the box is no longer there. He confronts Ramón and Ana, but they claim to know nothing about it and assume that the box must have been stolen because it contained money. Roberto is leaving for Buenos Aires and gives Ramón his address there – his grandfather’s old apartment on Tango Street. There is then the text of a letter dated June 1941 in Santiago de Compostela and written by Carme to Anselmo, in which she confesses her love for him and her nostalgia for the time they spent together in the apartment on Tango Street, the hours he stole from his other life, and how she has now married Evaristo, is pregnant with his child and wishes to honour and respect him, even though she knows that Anselmo will always be the love of her life. Lola and Rosa bump into each other in a shop selling cosmetics. Lola is trying out a new look, and Rosa, who is not allowed by Damián to wear make-up, is simply looking to see what there is. They have a coffee, and Lola explains that she and Antonio are getting separated, they have fallen out of love. Rosa protests that someone has to look after the house, the children, the family. She realizes that she depends completely on Damián both emotionally and financially. When they are leaving the café, she sees an advertisement for a cook and decides on the spur of the moment to apply for the job.
