Antonio Banderas and Carmen Maura star in this Spanish black comedy written and directed Pedro Almodóvar. The film follows Pepa Marcos (Maura), a distraught TV actress considering suicide after her long-time lover Iván (Fernando Guillén) leaves her without warning. When she lets out her flat, the new tenants turn out to be Iván's son Carlos (Banderas) and his fiancée Marisa (Rossy de Palma) which further complicates matters. Meanwhile, Pepa's friend Candela (Maria Barranco) is desperate to contact her after learning that her former lover is wanted by the police on terrorism charges.

In a convent in Madrid a band of nuns called the Humble Redeemers practice their particular brand of the Catholic Religion under their motto, 'Sin Is Our Chosen Path'. Yolanda, a nightclub singer, witnesses her boyfriend die from an overdose, and with the police out to question her, she decides to take refuge with the nuns. The convent specializes in the salvation of murderesses, but their benefactor has stopped coming up with the money, and, fearful that they may have to sell the place, the nuns welcome Yolanda. Yolanda encounters an unusual religious life: a heroin-addicted lesbian Mother Superior, a soft porn writing nun, another into acid and one who wrestles tigers.