A highly controversial portrayal of the events associated with accounts of apparitions of Virgin Mary in Mexico who appeared in Tepeyac, Mexico in 1531 and the story behind the making of the venerated image of the Madonna of Tepeyac. According to the interpretation of the events by the authors of the film, the local pagans, after conversion to Christianity, continued to worship their idols. Friar Pedro, having found statues of idols in the church, devises a plan to "truly" convert the locals. He ordered a brown-skinned statue of the Virgin to be made and when the statue is brought into a church he interprets this as an apparition and a sign for the locals to convert to Christianity. The film was banned by the Mexican government for 20 years as it was viewed by the wide Mexican population as a highly liberal and profane depiction of the accounts of the Virgin of Guadalupe.