As a young woman born in a tradition-bound town but raised in the modernizing atmosphere of Manila, Julie gropes towards maturity without benefit of guidance from understanding elders. Home for the traditional town fiesta, she meets poor boy-next-door Dido Ventura (Bembol Rocco), whose passion and impulsiveness rush them into elopement, but his family has a long-standing grievance against the Monserrats, who through fraudulence in the past had grabbed the Ventura property. When the young lovers ask for permission to marry, Julie's snooty aunts make her choose between her present status as a rich single Monserrat, and an uncertain future as Dido's wife. In a moment of indecisiveness, Julie gives up Dido and returns to her music studies. At university, Julie is visited by the elderly violinist from her hometown whom she idolizes, Maestro Juan Roque (Jonee Gamboa), who has learned she is pregnant and come to announce he is her father--then walk out. When she gives birth, against her aunts' wishes she decides to give the baby to its father. But by this time, it's become impossible for the baby to have its father. Dido has joined the band of Huks headed by Kumander Salome (Lito Anzures). Driven by the desire to help his daughter, Maestro Juan Roque goes to the Huk hideout to effect reconciliation between Dido and Julie. A quick night visit for Dido is arranged, and the lovers reunite--too late, for government agents have learned of the Huks rebel's presence, and a bloody shootout affirms the nihilism of the film's title.