It's 1936 and Stephen Faith, a young English schoolboy arranges to spend the summer in Zahara Spain with the family of the mayor. A friend of his father's from their school days, the mayor has invited Stephen to come and tutor his youngest son in English while offereing him a chance to improve his Spanish. Stephen learns more than Spanish that summer beginning with his liaison with Pedro the mayor's older son and then with Pablo the mayor's youngest. While both boys are homosexual and willing to teach Stephen a thing or two, the Spanish civil war erupts and soon Stephen is learning about things other than love.