Set primarily in a projected 2014, A Long Return (Largo Retorno) presents a future shaped not by gleaming cities or space travel, but by the desperate pursuit of medical immortality. The narrative follows a man who, unable to accept the terminal illness of his wife in the mid-1970s, utilizes emerging cryogenic technology to preserve her body until medical science can provide a cure. The 2014 depicted is a somber, grounded world where the passage of time has outpaced the protagonist's emotional state, turning the future into a site of profound isolation rather than technological wonder.

The societal dynamics focus on the intersection of romantic devotion and bioethics. In this vision of the 21st century, the Earth remains politically and socially recognizable to a 1970s audience, but it is haunted by the presence of those 'suspended' in time. The film implies an Earth where the wealthy or the desperate can opt out of natural death, creating a specialized medical infrastructure designed to maintain the 'sleeping' dead. It suggests a divergence where cryogenic stasis became a standardized, albeit melancholy, branch of medicine by the early 2010s.

The film’s central prediction of functional, reversible human cryopreservation remains unfulfilled in the real 2014. While contemporary Spanish criticism highlights the film's focus on the emotional toll of scientific hubris, the technical depiction of stasis aligns with the 1970s fascination with life extension. Unlike the high-tech aesthetics of Hollywood sci-fi, this film’s future feels lived-in and weary. Analysis-quality sources specifically discussing the accuracy of its 2014 setting are scarce, as the film is primarily treated as a romantic melodrama using sci-fi tropes to explore grief rather than a rigorous attempt at futurism.