Pepe Pelota is a famous soccer star from Spain. In Madeline's Manners, Pepito's parents invite him over to their house for dinner on Saturday night. On the night before the dinner, Pepito's cousin Pablito thinks that soccer players don't care about good manners and shows Pepito a picture of Pepe Pelota spitting at another soccer player.
On the night of the dinner, Madeline shows courtesy when she introduces herself to Pepe Pelota and him to Miss Etiquette. In an accident, Miss Etiquette's flowers fall off her hair, so Pepe politely picks them off the floor for her. When Pablito accidentally shows the photo to Pepe tipping his hat to him (as he'd been hiding the photo in it), Pepe reveals to him and Pepito that the picture had been taken years ago and that he got in trouble for that kind of behavior, not by having to go to jail as Pepito asks, but instead, by having gotten ejected from the game, causing his team to lose the game, meaning that, as Pablito asks, even in soccer games, good manners matter.
Then after dinner by candlelight, Pepe, Miss Etiquette, Genevieve, and the children play soccer on a damp lawn for the rest of the night up until a Sunday dawn.