A young locksmith is forced to leave his home and family to join the Buenos Aires police force.

Single, hopeless, and still living with his mother in a dusty village somewhere in Argentina, the thirty-two-year-old locksmith, Zapa, receives a call from his boss to open a safe--and next thing he knows--he is handcuffed, and charged of theft. Framed and down on his luck, Zapa's miserable life will take a turn for the better, when a letter of recommendation from his uncle and former policeman, Ismael, opens a position in the Police Academy to become a corporal. During the days of his rigorous training, Zapa will also experience an irregular love affair; however, will he finally manage to take charge of his life as he works his way up in the West Buenos Aires Police Force?—Nick Riganas

Zapa is a locksmith in a quiet and little town lost somewhere in the province of Buenos Aires. The work is quite slow, and hours seem to pass slowly. Polaco, the owner of the shop, sends him on a job that consists of opening a safe at an office. The next day, Zapa is imprisoned for being responsible of robbing the place. Ismael, his uncle, a retired policeman, bails him out and sends him to Buenos Aires. Zapa becomes an aspiring officer in the Buenos Aires Police. He gets to his new home city, takes the instructional course, works at a precinct, has a love affair with a teacher and starts to see his life turn into a strange fiction.—Edgardo Rossetto