The death collector, a time traveler interested in capturing the moments surrounding death, goes to Mexico City in 1960 to witness the death of a famous movie star. This collector prefers to visit small, intimate deaths that have lasting impacts, rather than major instances of death, such as massacres. Thus, the death of Ramon Gay, a handsome leading man, intrigues the collector. The collector is almost prevented from going to see the death when a grenade explodes near their apartment building which kills two police officers. The whole building is locked down and questioned, but eventually someone blames it on a neighbor from the fourth floor, and the building is opened up again. At the time and place of Ramon's death, the collector watches Ramon and an actress, Evangelina Elizondo, leave a restaurant and get into a car. Another movie star, Arturo de Cordova, who is Elizondo's ex-husband, finds them and tries to pull Evangelina out of the car. When he starts to beat her, Ramon intervenes, only to be shot five times. Arturo flees.
Later, the death collector finds Arturo to tell him the news that Ramon has died. The death collector takes a newspaper with a headline about the missing murderer, and then returns home. There, the apartment on the fourth floor is being emptied. Unperturbed, the collector heads to their apartment and makes plans for the next year's vacation; they want to see the death of another movie star.