Plot
In June 1974, judiciary agent Benjamín Espósito investigates the rape and murder of Liliana Colotto. Espósito promises her husband, Ricardo Morales, that he will find the killer and ensure a life sentence. Espósito is assisted by his alcoholic partner Pablo Sandoval and the new department chief, Irene Menéndez-Hastings. Romano, Espósito's rival, accuses a pair of construction workers (one of whom is a Bolivian immigrant) of the murder, angering Espósito upon discovering that both of them were tortured to obtain a confession.
Espósito finds a lead while looking at old photos of Liliana, which Ricardo gave him. Many of them feature a man, identified as Isidoro Gómez, staring obsessively at her. Espósito and Sandoval sneak into Gómez's mother's house in Chivilcoy. During the break-in, they find some letters from Gómez to his mother. Sandoval steals them, and Espósito finds out upon returning to Buenos Aires. Their "visit" only causes trouble with their higher-ups, and they are unable to find any evidence in the letters. Gómez remains at large due to a careless phone call from Ricardo to Gómez's mother in a desperate quest for his wife's killer. Ultimately, the case is closed.
In 1975, Espósito finds Ricardo in a train station in Retiro and discovers that he was trying to find Gómez in multiple stations. Espósito convinces Irene to reopen the investigation. Meanwhile, while getting drunk in a bar, Sandoval makes a discovery: an acquaintance of his identifies several names on the letters—seemingly without any connection—as footballers of Racing Football Club. After identifying him as a Racing fan, Espósito and Sandoval attend a game between Racing and Huracán, hoping to find Gómez.
While keeping an eye on the game's attendees in Huracán's stadium, Espósito and Sandoval locate Gómez among the crowd, but a sudden goal causes a hubbub and allows Gómez to flee. A chase ensues, and Gómez is caught by the stadium's security guards as he invades the pitch. Espósito and Irene then grill him illegally, and Irene makes Gómez confess by calling him physically weak and attacking his masculinity. Gómez is tried and sentenced, but Romano bails him out one month later to get revenge on Espósito and hires him as a hitman for the right-wing faction of the Peronist Party. Espósito and Irene try to reverse it but are stopped by Romano's intervention. Espósito informs Ricardo that his wife's killer will never go to prison.
Weeks later, Sandoval gets into a bar fight, causing Espósito to take him to his flat and fetch his wife. When Espósito and Sandoval's wife return, they find the door pried open, Espósito's pictures flipped over, and Sandoval shot dead in his room. Espósito soon concludes that Romano sent assassins after him, but Sandoval impersonated him to protect his friend. Fearing for his life, Espósito goes into hiding for 10 years in Jujuy Province with Irene's cousins. Espósito returns to Buenos Aires in 1985 to find Gómez missing and Irene married with two children.
In 1999, Espósito tries to make sense of the case and visits Ricardo, who moved in 1975 to an isolated cottage in a rural area of the Buenos Aires Province. Ricardo loses control when Espósito asks him how he coped with his wife's death and the unfair end of the investigation since Gómez was never seen again after becoming part of Isabel Perón's security detail. Ricardo tells Espósito that he kidnapped and murdered Gómez years earlier, and Espósito leaves. Moments later, however, he remembers Ricardo not wanting an easy death for Gómez decades ago, and Espósito sneaks back to Ricardo's house, where he finds Ricardo giving food to Gómez, whom he has kept imprisoned for 25 years in complete isolation, without ever talking to him. Gómez begs Espósito for human contact. Ricardo tells Espósito he promised him "a life sentence" as he staggers out.
Back in Buenos Aires, Espósito visits Sandoval's grave for the first time. He then goes to Irene's office, ready to confess his love to her, something she was always expecting. Smiling, she tells him to close the door.
