Mencía’s life looks nothing like she once imagined. Caught in a cycle of avoidance, apathy, and postponed decisions, she finds herself in the middle of a deep existential crisis. Until one day, she starts receiving messages on her phone… from her teenage self. An inspiring comedy with a grounded touch of fantasy—fresh, clever, and full of heart. A story with endless adaptation potential.
Mencía is in her early thirties and carries a persistent sense of failure: her life isn’t what she once imagined. Caught between a dull job, an overbearing mother, and an emotionally draining routine filled with anxiety and disappointment, she finds refuge in her group of friends—sharing nights of drinking, existential conversations, and romantic letdowns. She also goes to therapy, though without much conviction.
During one session, her therapist suggests she write a letter to her past self. Mencía does it half-jokingly, treating it as a meaningless exercise. But the next day, she receives an unexpected reply: an MMS from 1999 signed by her teenage self, containing details no one else could know. Apparently, her old friend Nacho, also from the past, is helping teenage Mencía send those messages. This impossible exchange completely unsettles the Mencía of 2025.
Intrigued, she reaches out to Nacho in the present and tells him everything. Together, they try to make sense of it. They begin exploring DMT, a hallucinogenic drug, and its possible effects on time perception and consciousness, though they find no clear answers. Meanwhile, the messages from the past keep coming—asking about the future with a mix of excitement and demand, requesting everything from lottery numbers to details about love and relationships.
These messages force Mencía to confront her choices, the life she’s somehow built without quite meaning to, and everything she’s left behind. Her routine remains unchanged: fleeting relationships, constant avoidance, therapy sessions with no progress. And without intending to, Mencía begins to grow attached to Nacho—who, unfortunately, is in a relationship.
The messages continue, but Mencía stops replying. She simply watches, hesitates, and feels more and more disconnected from herself. Eventually, in an attempt to either deepen the mystery or simply escape from it all, they both take DMT. The experience breaks them open inside, and in that vulnerable state, they end up sleeping together. For Mencía, it’s a mix of desire, confusion, and comfort. For Nacho, it becomes a source of emotional turmoil he can’t quite process.
The mystery is never solved, and her relationship with Nacho remains unresolved. But something shifts. Mencía, even if unable to completely change her life, decides to stop fighting her past. She accepts that maybe things don’t always make sense—and sometimes, the only thing we can do is face it without numbing ourselves.
RELEVANT INFORMATION: Diana Aller has built most of her career as a screenwriter and columnist. She has worked in television across various formats, including reality shows, dating programs, game shows, talent shows, and celebrity gossip programs. She has contributed to major newspapers such as El Mundo and El País, as well as dozens of other publications. To date, she has published three novels.
Todas las guerras empiezan en verano (All Wars Begin in Summer) is much more than the story of a woman lost in her routine. It’s a sharp, ironic generational portrait about the disillusionment of those who grew up believing they could be anything—only to end up trapped in a life they never fully chose.
The dialogue between Mencía and her teenage self serves as a narrative device to explore themes such as regret, existential frustration, and the pressure to fit into a world that moves too fast. It also introduces an original touch of fantasy or science fiction that could easily be expanded to strengthen that dimension of the story.
With a direct style full of biting humor, blending contemporary realism with moments of surrealism and social critique, the novel becomes an existential comedy about how to survive (with sarcasm) the failure of our own expectations.
AUDIOVISUAL POTENTIAL: TV Series, Miniseries, Feature Film, TV Movie.
AVAILABLE LANGUAGES: Spanish.
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