The story of Nick Joaquin, who only accepted the National Artist Award on the condition that the Marcos administration release a well-known writer who was being unjustly detained during Martial Law.

Abel arriving at the outskirts of Barrio Paraiso, a little provincial town run with an iron fist by the sinister crime lord El Diablo. Abel is in town to find his troubled older brother, hoping to bring him home and fulfill a promise made at his father's deathbed. He gets some help from the widow Melissa and her young son, who offer him a place to hide out while wages a violent war in hostile territory against the crime lord and his many well armed goons.