On the eve of the Spanish Civil War, a group of children who feel no pain are locked up in an asylum deep in the Pyrénées. Here, the children are taught physical suffering in attempt to rehabilitate them. In the present day, a brillant neurosurgeon, who needs a bone marrow transplant to survive, must find his biological parents. In this vital quest, he will awaken his country's ghosts and be confronted by the disastrous fate that awaited the children insensitive to pain.