Amid the cracked granite and boulder-strewn mountains across the California-Mexico border, two villages exist side-by-side. Aurelio Gonzalez, a headstrong but naive college graduate, arrives from Mexico City to fulfill his national teaching commitment.

In the early 1990s, international turmoil has turned the villages' peaceful coexistence into a cauldron of conflict. When Aurelio learns that he is but a "ghost" professor in Baja, California, he crosses the newly-tense border to find work in the U.S. and touches the heart of his boss, Kristin Kuhl.

But U.S. Border Patrol agent Raul Camacho...