Tells the birth of Elpidio, the death of his father and the beginnings of the War of Independence; as he knows María Silvia and how he becomes a scourge for the Spanish army, the counter-guerrilla and the American landowners. It develops almost totally in 1895.

Elpidio Valdés, a soldier of the Cuban war of independence, is entrusted with the difficult and dangerous mission of bringing from Florida, in the United States, a shipment of weapons for the Cuban Liberation Army. It develops between 1896 and 1897.

Elpidio Valdés returns to the Cuban countryside to fight against the Spaniards. But they have a much more dangerous enemy: the Americans, who want to take over the island at any cost. Elpidio Valdés and his comrades-in-arms will try to prevent them from achieving their goal, with machetes in hand and bullets flying. It was conceived as a series for Spanish television and later shown as a feature film under the name Más se perdió en Cuba (More Was Lost in Cuba) in Spain and Elpidio Valdés contra el águila y el león (Elpidio Valdés Against the Eagle and the Lion) in Cuba.