Every evening when the sun is setting over Cuba's capitol, Havana begins its Telenovela time. Countless Cubans gather in front of their badly wired and crudely repaired televisions to watch the small or large tragedies unfolding in their popular never ending soaps. Here they find the relaxation from all the hustle and reflection on what's really important in their lives: love, jealousy, various intrigues, struggle for justice, and the search for the ultimate happiness.
 
Our film has been made when the Cuban TV began showing Telenovelas again after some time that was dedicated to the lifestyles of today's Havana. Shortly after the announcement of the pilot episode, no one could miss the wave of wheel barrows, wagons, and Rikschas, which the Cubans use to bring their broken televisions to the repair service - an adventure of construction blended into the city pulse of Havana. In the early phase of the first ten part of the Telenova we follow Gladys, a young tobacco worker, Silai the owner of a hair salon, Felix, Joana, Marino and Vilma who are all fanatic watchers and José, the mechanic, who is responsible for the functioning of those old devices.
 
José is a freelancer, known for his golden hands. He solves problems and becomes therefore unreplaceable for his customers. The televisions are missing parts and since they were all made in Russia, now ten years after the downfall of the Soviet empire, there is no hope for a better situation. José improvises, invents, and often makes the impossible possible. Though José suffers from something that no welding or voltage meter can fix. His wife has kicked him out after 14 years of marriage. It is a story that could have possibly been a Telenovela episode all its own - for Jose, it's his bitter reality.
 
Silai, the boss of the Salon ROJO in the downtown of Havana notices the pain of José, taking care of him on the barber chair in her Salon. After realising that he is a mechanic she uses the luck of fortune and tells him the story of her broken TV and the hope that he will repair it. Silai loves her salon. She has been the boss here for 28 years. Here they celebrate, cuss, dance, and some times even work. It is a beautiful hair cutting salon smack in the centre of the universe; right in downtown Havana. Silai's last big love ended five years ago. Certainly when she was young she ran after her man. But the times of small love affairs is now over. Silai is looking for a man who will be her partner, who solves problems, not somebody who just pushes his feet under the table and wants to be served. And as long as she is unable to find that special someone, it is a life of staying single and fighting on.
 
For Gladys, however, things could be much easier. She is young, good looking, and can get her way with man. She has kicked the father of her child out of their apartment. Though Gladys has lost her job a while ago. She tries to find a new one but fails, and likened to Silai, the men always seem the same. First she is in love with one, but then they oppress her. Thus her problems are drowned out with rum as she explains that "the next day, when you wake up, you still will realise that nothing has changed."
 
With Joana it is different. She has fought over Felix for a while and holds on to him because he combines a lot of things that are important for a self-confident lady like her: he is handsome, knows how to solve problems, and is no macho. On top of things he suffers alongside his woman. He would like to buy her a new TV, he knows that some of their friends already have a SONY, but his money is just enough for their bottle of rum. So month after month he will take his old CARIBE TV to the repair.
 
Marino solves all his problems with sex. He does that as often as possible, and by doing so manages to find relaxation from his daily worries. His profession is being a Casanova, visiting his ex-wife often, and taking care of the TV that she has left after her departure. Vilma, the girl he has left his wife for after being married for 38 years, has been his only true love for the last eight years. Convinced of his "Manpower" Mario even goes every morning to the door of the jelly company where she works to present her with a rose.
 
For José, his hope to ever find a woman again is vanishing. The attempts to warm up his old love in Canada has failed despite all efforts. Now he tries to tame his frustration with rum. It is the island he can escape from, even though he still imagines a life on the other side. "What worries me the most is the cold. I can work, I am a TV Mechanic, and even if I can't do that in Canada, then I will clean dishes or shovel snow, somehow I will get by ..."
 
With all these struggles days and weeks and years and the whole life passes by, like episodes of the Telenovela. And nothing changes.