Chilean president Salvador Allende wanted to modernise his country and fight poverty. But conservative groups organised a series of wildcat strikes and the White House put pressure on Chile's economy. When they realised that they could not eliminate the president by legal means, they prepared a coup d'état. This bold three-part work of cinema vérité captures the many voices of Chilean society in a riveting account of the fall of the Allende government in 1973.

Between March and September 1973, the left and right clashed on all fronts: In the streets, the factories, the courts and the universities, Parliament and the media. The US government continued to interfere by financing those fermenting chaos. As the military conspired in Valparaiso, the middle classes encouraged the unrest.

In the months leading up to the military coup in Chile, supporters of the socialist president Allende try to create a " state within a state " with political and charitable actions - as a counterweight to the anti-reform forces in the country, supported by the Nixon administration in the USA.