On the border of Venezuela with Colombia, during the late 80's, two men survive an armed assault near the Arauca River, in which fourteen of their companions end up dead. The Army accuses them of being guerrilla fighters and tries via intimidation to seize them from the cell where they are being watched over by the local police officer and by the entire village. They say they are simple fishermen, but pressure to yield to the official version is overwhelming.

Benjamin is an unemployed man, self-absorbed and isolated from society who, after the loss of his mother with whom he had a very close relationship, plunges into total depression. In a support group for people who have lost loved ones, he meets Ines, a middle-aged woman who has been widowed after her husband's suicide, with whom he begins a strange relationship that gradually begins to become unhealthy. Benjamin surrenders himself totally to Ines and begins to get carried away by the reins she is marking for their relationship, until he reaches a point where he comes to doubt everything he knows about himself and what he really wants.

A nine-year-old boy’s preening obsession with straightening his hair elicits a tidal wave of homophobic panic in his hard-working mother, in this tender but clear-eyed coming-of-age tale.