Gonzalo Infante and Pedro Machuca are 11-year old classmates at Father McEnroe′s elite parochial school. It is Chile of 1973. Gonzalo lives in a wealthy neighborhood just a few blocks from Pedro′s shanty town. Father McEnroe forces them into the same class hoping they will learn to respect one another, and their friendship turns out to be filled with discoveries and surprises. 1973 was one of many years in a turbulent and cruel period of Chilean history. Like the boys in the film, rich and poor were integrated for the first time in the country′s history, and director Andrés Wood recalls having had many shanty town kids in his class as an 8-year old. The open social confrontations taking place in Chile at the time - as well as the loss of democracy and the onset of dictatorial rule - are witnessed via the two children at the center of the story. Through them, and through this particular educational experience, we get a fragment of what is a much larger story.