Matilde is a nun convinced that faith moves mountains. She secretly begins a mystic fasting to end what she considers to be the second great flood. Elena is a thin and fashion-conscious woman ashamed of her daughter's chubbiness. She's willing to do the impossible to make her daughter Linda thin so Linda will look like a little princess on the day she receives her first communion.

A terrible disease is found in a Mexican town. A doctor tries to alert the authorities when he discovers its epidemic nature. No one listen to him and soon after the disease spreads. The government tries to control the information in order to prevent panic.

Juanito is an eight year old boy who can predict the future, therefore the whole town is scared of him.

In 1980, an American journalist covering the Salvadoran Civil War becomes entangled with both the leftist guerrilla groups and the right-wing military dictatorship while trying to rescue his girlfriend and her children.