The movie has excellent character development, charming and humorous dialogues, lovely cinematography and an overall attractiveness.
The male lead has led an innocent existence in which he spent some time in a seminary, and then has deserted from the army. Now when he meets the four daughters of a libertine aging artist who has befriended him, he wants to make up for lost time. The older three daughters use him for their forbidden pleasures, and don't take the encounters seriously. Being unsophisticated, he falls in love with each until the next one seduces him. He doesn't realize until almost too late, that the youngest actually loves him, although I can't see what qualities he has except for his looks. Oh, that's right, he cooks better than anyone in the family.
The costume celebration and its aftermath is one of the most hilarious I've seen in a movie regardless of language.
I'm sure there were social messages that without knowledge of Spanish customs and history, were not apparent. There seemed to be a strong association with death. The side story of the young man who is infatuated with the second daughter but can't break away from his mother or tradition, until his frustration causes him to falsely renounce everything his mother stands for, probably symbolizes certain hypocrises in Spain at that point in history as it tried to break away from a moonarchy but couldn't make up its mind.
Enjoy!