Oro, Plata, Mata follows two aristocratic families in Negros during World War II. It is structured in three parts: Oro a life of luxury and comfort in the city, Plata a still-luxurious time of refuge in a provincial hacienda, and finally Mata a toilsome retreat deeper into the mountains.
When plain orphan Elsa begins having visions of the Virgin Mary, the rest of the residents of her isolated village find themselves questioning their own beliefs and values. Soon, Elsa is healing people with a variety of ailments. As word of this phenomenon spreads, tourists, pilgrims, patients and a documentary filmmaker all arrive on a quest to partake in the miracle.
The fortunes of three impoverished friends and their families abruptly change after an airplane crashes in a nearby mountain. They rush to the crash site along with all the villagers, not to help the victims but to plunder their valuables. A dead American passenger carried a large amount of money in his briefcase which Mesiong, Ponsoy, and Jamin find and avariciously keep for themselves. But the town mayor gets greedy and with his hirelings abducts the three to divest them of their booty.
Isla, a island maiden who has all the males, including her father, lusting after her. Her dream was to leave her primitive surroundings and find another life in the big city. However, it would not be easy. To be able to escape, she must use her body to pay off all the men who would help her.
Crispin is a soltero who has undergone several heartbreaks with women, broken family ties, and his own personal conflicts. In his evolution as a man, he shows his weakness, his strengths, his confusion.
