| Director | Andy Garcia |
|---|---|
| Genre | drama film |
| Runtime | 143 min |
| Country | United States |
| Budget | $9.6 million |
| Box office | $4.4 million |
Fico Fellove is the owner of El Trópico, a swanky nightclub in Cuba in 1958. He lives for his family and his music while facing the harsh realities of Fulgencio Batista's dictatorial regime. His brother Ricardo becomes a revolutionary for Fidel Castro's rebel army, his brother Luis joins the student opposition, and his father Federico, a well-respected university professor, pushes for change by constitutional, peaceful means.
When Ricardo is arrested and threatened with execution, Fico calls on an old prep-school friend, Castel, now a police captain, for help. Ricardo is released from jail, and Fico offers to help him go to Miami or New York City, but instead, he joins a rebel column headed by Che Guevara.
Fico is approached by Meyer Lansky, of New York's Genovese crime family, who wishes to open up a gambling room at El Trópico. He intends for his club to remain a place of music, so he turns down the offer. When a bomb explodes at the club, killing Fico's star entertainer (who is also his lover), Fico assumes that Lansky is behind it. However, in the increasingly unsettled climate, he cannot be certain.
Luis becomes connected with a plot to seize the presidential palace, kill Batista, and restore democracy. The plot fails and most of the attackers are killed. Luis escapes but is subsequently killed by Batista's secret police. At the urging of his mother, Fico tries to cheer up Luis's distraught widow, Aurora; Fico and Aurora fall in love.
Castro's rebels seize power after Batista flees the country. Fidel Castro declares there will be no elections, and Che Guevara oversees the arrests and summary execution of those who supported the Batista regime. Among those to be executed is Captain Castel. Fico asks Ricardo, now a high-ranking officer in the new regime, to return the favor that Castel once carried out to save Ricardo's life, but Ricardo does nothing to save him.
Ricardo visits his uncle Donoso, a tobacco farmer and cigar maker. Donoso feels that, although Castro may be in power now, "the land endures", and says the farm will pass to him next. Ricardo announces that the reason for his visit is to appropriate the farm for the state. Donoso, furious, has a heart attack and dies. Ricardo, overcome by grief, dies by suicide shortly after the funeral.
The revolution affects Fico in other ways as it takes a communist direction. The musicians' union, controlled by Castro, has declared the saxophone to be an imperialist instrument and forbids its use. The club is eventually shut down on a flimsy pretext. After a chance meeting with Castro, Aurora is declared "Revolutionary Widow of the Year". She begins to work for the State, and ends her relationship with Fico.
Fico's parents beg him to leave Cuba and start a new family. Reluctantly, he procures exit visas for himself and Aurora. In a last effort to convince her to join him, Fico barges in on a reception for revolutionary leaders and Soviet Bloc ambassadors, but Aurora refuses to go. He raises a toast to a democratic Cuba, then leaves the reception. Fico says goodbye to his parents and goes to the airport, where most of his money and possessions — including a prized family pocket watch from his father — are confiscated.
Fico begins a new life in New York. Working as a dishwasher and piano player at a Cuban club, he hopes to save enough money to bring his family to America. Meyer Lansky approaches him with an offer of a Cuban nightclub in Las Vegas, but Fico turns him down. He runs into Aurora, who is in New York as part of a Cuban delegation to the United Nations. He realizes that she is like Cuba: beautiful, alluring, but also damaged and unattainable. He decides that his cause is to build a new life until he can return to the city he lost. Fico recites a poem by Cuban nationalist Father José Martí, and commits himself to returning to his "lost city" someday. He opens a new nightclub in New York.