Maria is a sixteen year old girl living in a village named Ciudad Meiora. One night, she is walking when she sees a man who is about to fall to his death. Somehow, she knows that if she steps on a dog’s tail, it will trigger a series of events that will save the young man. She does so, and the man survives. She asks who he was, and the villagers respond that he is Lorenzo, the son of a stargazer who keeps his eyes closed when he’s not looking up at the stars so as to preserve them. Maria falls in love with Lorenzo, but she realizes that he will only ever look upon her if she floats up with the stars. She consults with a kitemaker, who tells her he can build her a kite that will allow her to float up in the sky if she gets together a bunch of ingredients. He sends her and his apprentice on a sixty-year journey, during which they grow old but get the ingredients. They come back to the village. The kitemaker died while they were away, but he left instructions for his replacement. The kite is built, and Maria’s companion tears up as he straps her onto it, but she tells him that it is no time for tears. She floats high in the sky, but Lorenzo remains on the ground, long-blind from days of staring up at the sky. He dreams of the stars he used to be able to see.