Sócrates García is a primary school teacher who is assigned by the principal of the school he works in to administer another school located in the town of El Romeral, as he is the only teacher from that school who is single. When Sócrates arrives at the train station in the nearby town of San Bartolo, nobody receives him on the station on the orders of the caudillo of El Romeral. Sócrates instead meets an arriero who is going to the town in his cart and takes Sócrates to El Romeral. When he arrives in town, he is received by the townspeople, including the municipal president, Lucas Campuzano and Don Margarito Vázquez, the town's caudillo. The municipal president presents Sócrates to the important people, but immediately realizes that he was going to have problems with the caudillo. There is also Doña Hortensia, who asks Sócrates to address the people a few words, but while he gave his speech the floor of the platform he was in collapses. Later, Doña Hortensia takes him to her house to host him. He asks where his school is to inspect it, only to discover that the school is in terrible conditions. Sócrates begins to suffer several difficulties, such as the eviction from the place where the school functioned, forcing him to improvise an open-field school, with columns of reeds, all caused by the town's caudillo Don Margarito and covered by the municipal president. Meanwhile, Sócrates and Hortensia begin a romance. First, Sócrates asks Hortensia for some photos; she, without knowing his intentions, brings them, and then Sócrates tells her that the photos are for his wallet. Grateful, Sócrates decides to serenade Hortensia with his students. Then, Sócrates takes his students to a field trip and, despite the apparent inexperience of Sócrates to camp, manages to make his students more loyal to him, to the point that they to dismantle the canteen that was put in place of the school, unleashing a fight in which Sócrates finally rescues his students. As a result of the fight, Don Margarito and his men burn Sócrates's improvised open-field school. A frustrated Sócrates at first decides to leave the town, but the love of Hortensia and the loyalty of his students make him change his mind. The announcement that the Governor of the state will make a visit to the town represents a salvation for Sócrates and the townspeople themselves. Although Don Margarito and his henchmen kidnap Sócrates to force the people to remain silent, his students manage to rescue him after convincing Felipe to reveal his whereabouts, in a small hut, and Sócrates gives the Governor documents that reveal the dirty maneuvers that Don Margarito made with the municipal president to illegally take land from peasants. After discovering the fraud that was being done to the peasants, Sócrates asks the Governor to build a decent school; the Governor grants the request. The film ends in front of the new school, with Sócrates and Hortensia walking together as the students sing to them.
