The story takes place in San Antonio de Areco, in the Argentine pampas. Fabio Cáceres remembers his childhood as an orphan and his youth working in the fields, alongside his godfather, Don Segundo Sombra, a lonely gaucho whom he admires and from whom he will learn to be a gaucho, following him in all his adventures. Don Segundo will be Fabio's role model.

A photographer shoots a documentary film in a small town in Argentina (Uribelarrea) about the filming that a foreign producer is doing on the spot.

When a group of terrorists hijack a train, the various passengers relive their memories.