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Punished for the bad results in his school exams Miguel has to go and stay with his aunt at her hostel by the seaside. Lead by Luisa, a young worker in the hostel, to his new room, he seems to ignore her presence as he takes her to be at the same level of servitude as himself.

From his balcony he notices fishermen returning to port from a distance, people enjoying a shared social activity, to which he’s not privynor likely to be soon.

He then sees the laundry being hung up to dry, but as he’s on the terrace, he can’t see who is hanging it out.

He moves himself to the space below the roof to see who’s putting it out there and, hidden in the darkness, he sees that it’s Luisa. The way that the scene is filmed gives the impression that he’s falling in love with an image, a painting he’s composing inspired by the young girl.

While he stays at the same objective distance from the young girl, the filmmaker moves from a long shot to a tighter shot on the girl, as if the desire to watch subjectively reduces the distance between them. For the moment the desire to watch seems very one sided. Flute music starts as he enters the apartment, as if magically summoned by this image which transfixes him.