Essential Truths of the Lake

Set in 1942, film opens with an Aryan washerwoman arrival to the Warsaw's ghetto. The Jewish wife she worked for before the war hires her to take her young daughter to the countryside until the war is over. Realizing she has the upperhand, the maid is rude and overbearing with her former employer, allowing the desperate woman to shower her with gifts and money before she'll take the child away. Later, they leave by train, but it's stopped, and they have to proceed on foot. By this time, the innocent youngster begun to charm her companion, so by the time they are stopped by German patrol, the woman is prepared to risk her life for the child.

In the Albarracín mountain range, on the borders of the provinces of Teruel and Cuenca, bands of bandits roam the most rugged landscapes, killing and robbing everyone they find in their path.

During the Spanish Civil War, a Falangist assigned to the University City is ordered to tour Madrid disguised as a Republican militiaman to deliver a message to a leader of the Resistance. Once the order is fulfilled, he takes the opportunity to visit his girlfriend, who lives under the protection of the father of his maid, a faithful Republican. But when the Falangist returns to the University City, he is seriously wounded and takes refuge in a hollow in which a wounded militiaman is also hiding. Together they will spend the last hours of their lives, understanding the futility of a fratricidal war.

A woman requests plastic surgery for her disfigured husband. The doctor narrates a tale about love transcending looks through Bulbul and Roshan's story in flashbacks, discouraging her from judging by appearances.