Memories of My Melancholy Whores

El Sabio (Emilio Echevarría), an old critic at a Caribbean newspaper, has spent all his life as a bachelor. As a child he idolized his mother to such a degree that after her death he could never attach himself seriously to any other woman. At twelve he, by mistake, paid his first visit to a brothel, an act frequently repeated throughout his lifetime. On the eve of his 90th birthday he decides to give himself "a night of mad love with a young virgin". An encounter with an innocent young girl (Paola Medina) is set up by the madam of a brothel (Geraldine Chaplin) which he used to visit when younger. Before he gets 91 he goes through an emotional drama that includes love, hate, jealousy, murder and disappointments enough to be the death of people younger than el Sabio. (texte officiel du distributeur)