Pain and Glory recounts a series of reunions of Salvador Mallo, a film director. He relives his childhood in the 1960s when he emigrated with his parents to Paterna, Valencia searching for fortune. He recounts his first love as an adult in the Madrid of the 80s as well as the pain breaking up. His writing is the only therapy to forget the unforgettable; the early discovery of cinema and the sense of emptiness, the immeasurable void caused by the impossibility of continuing to make films. Dolor y Gloria speaks of artistic creation, of the difficulty of separating it from one's life and the passions that give it meaning and hope. In recovering his past, Salvador feels the urgent need to narrate it, and in that need, he also finds his salvation.