Roque Montalvo is stuck in a California backwater helping his Salvadoran aunt care for his damaged brother, an ex-marine badly wounded in Iraq. When immigration agents arrest Roque's uncle, the family has nowhere else to turn. Badgered by his street-hardened cousin, Roque agrees to bring the old man home, relying on the criminal gangs to help him cross El Salvador, Guatemala, and Mexico to the US border. It turns out he will have to transport not only his uncle, but also an Arab whose intentions are disturbingly vague and a young beauty promised to a Mexican crime lord. During his journey, Roque will be asked time and again to choose between survival and betrayal of his country, his family, his heart.