Charm School 2007

Adela, Martha Higareda, is a headstrong teenager who clashes with her politician father, Ángel, Jorge Luis Moreno. During a theater performance she accidentally sets the stage on fire, gets arrested, and threatens her father’s carefully managed public image. To curb her reckless impulses, her father confines her to a strict regimen and arranges for her to attend Doña Macarena “Maca” Ribera’s finishing school, promising to fund her long-awaited acting lessons in London if she cooperates.

Inside the school, Adela bonds with a small circle of fellow students: Maribel, María Aura, who struggles with clumsiness; Valentina, Ximena Sariñana, a gifted musician facing family conflicts over her sexual orientation; Heidi, Alejandra Adame, engaged to the son of a wealthy man and at the school to learn etiquette; and Pia, Camila Sodi, a bright, bookish girl who finds romance challenging. They study embroidery, cooking, floral arrangement, etiquette, and homemaking under Maca’s patient guidance, learning to blend discipline with inner strength.

Adela, initially defiant, begins to help her classmates and staff, including Emiliano, Daniel Berlanga, a maintenance worker who forms a cautious friendship with her. Over time she grows more serious about her training, learning to cooperate with Maca and to empathize with the people around her.

Political pressures culminate in a high-profile dinner designed to present Adela as a well-mannered young woman. At the event, she challenges expectations by revealing family secrets and misunderstandings, forcing the adults to confront the gaps between appearances and reality, and to reckon with the school’s reputation.

After the course concludes, each student follows her own path: Heidi reconciles with her fiancé; Maribel decides to open her own finishing school; Valentina continues her music career with her girlfriend; Pia begins a romantic relationship of her own; Adela departs for London to study acting, armed with new confidence; and Maca leaves the school to launch a television program, bringing her practical philosophy into a new arena.