Junior is a nine-year-old boy growing up in a working-class housing project in Caracus with his mother Marta, a young unemployed widow, and his baby brother. Searching for an identity without a father figure, Junior feels marginalised by his mother's preoccupation with his younger brother. When school term approaches and his yearbook photo is due to be taken, Junior wishes to change his image and straighten his stubbornly curly hair. This puts him at odds with his mother. Overwhelmed with searching for a job to provide for the family, she finds it increasingly difficult to tolerate Junior's fixation with his looks. The more Junior tries to look sharp and make his mother love him, the more she rejects him, until he is cornered, face to face with a painful decision.