- Mrs. Forbes, a German governess, is hired for six weeks to take care of two children, while their parents are away. She is authoritarian and repressive, so the children plan to murder her. But when they spy on her during the night, they discover Mrs. Forbes' secret.—Edgar Soberon Torchia <cimas@sinfo.net>
- Eduardo and his wife are a well to do couple staying in a summer seaside house in Yucatan. They are spending part of the summer months there with their two unruly children: Mauricio and Sandro who are nine and eight years old. The household is completed with the superstitious indigenous cook and a local young fisherman who serves as the children underwater swimming instructor.
As the couple leaves for six weeks to take a cruise from Miami, the mother hires Mrs. Forbes, a German governess, to take care of the children while the parents are away. Mrs. Forbes arrives by boat after a long trip and she is immediately instructed by the mother to impose "law and order" in the house and to treat the undisciplined and rude children severely in an attempt to improve their ways.
Once in charge, Mrs. Forbes treats the children with formality, displaying an authoritarian and repressive temperament. She subjects the children to iron discipline, fueling a deaf resentment in them. Mauricio, the oldest brother, is more pliable, but Bruno, the youngest takes more time to follow Mrs. Forbes commands. Spying on her at night, the brothers discover that she walks around the house drinking alcohol, eating sweets, and reading loud strange passages in German.
From her arrival, Mrs. Forbes is smitten with Aquiles, the hunky young scuba instructor who spends a great deal of time around the house playing with the children and at sea with them while wearing very little. Eating up by a burning desire for Aquiles, Mrs. Forbes sets her yes on seducing him. She tells him the mythological story of the impossible love between his namesake, the Greek warrior Achilles, and Penthesilea, Queen of the Amazons, who loved each other in spite of being enemies. Although well put together, Mrs. Forbes is at least 15 years his senior, and Achilles is repelled by her advances. Only after much insistence, Aquiles accepts her invitation to go to town for drinks one night. There, she opens up to him. She strips her soul and exposes her true self. She hates order and restrain and rather would like to be free, drink, live a love. She actually does not believe in what she has been imposing on the children. Aquiles remains indifferent. It is Achilles who hides a secret. He is always reluctant to anyone, even the children who are close to him, to go near his seaside rustic cabin. The following night, Mrs. Forbes plunges into the ocean and arrives swimming to Aquiles's house. She enters secretly only to find Aquiles naked in the company of a male lover. Before leaving undiscovered, Mrs. Forbes sets the house on fire with the two men inside.
By the next morning over breakfast, Mrs. Forbes receives a letter that shakes her, but its content remains unrevealed. Afterward, when she gives the orders of the day to the children they have had enough of her and disobey. Reaching her breaking point, Mrs. Forbes also gives on them. They can do whatever they want. All along since Miss Forbes forced the two boys to eat moray, the same fish that they were terrified of when it was nailed to the door of the house, the children have planned to killer her poisoning her tequila. The idea came from Sandro, the more resolute of the two boys. Mauricio warns him that they could end up on the electric chair, but Sandro is determined. First, there is not electric chair in Mexico and secondly, he would make sure nobody would find out. The brothers poison the tequila and the next morning, waking up late and not seeing Mrs. Forbes around, they believe that their plan has been a success. The children cheerfully celebrate their regain freedom going scuba diving on their own. At their return, the beach house is in turmoil. Mrs. Forbes has been killed, stabbed many times. Mauricio and Sandro manage to avoid the police who guard the crime scene and enter the governess's bedroom. They see her lying death surrounded by blood with multiple stabs and cuts instead of the poisoned tequila the boys planned her to drink. In death, Mrs. Forbes face has an expression of unsettling serenity. She seems to be happy at last.
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