Maria is from Antigua, Guatemala. Her best friend in the world, Rosaria, is from San Salvador, El Salvador. Maria is 17, Rosaria is 16. They decide to go to the promised land just north of the Mexican border. The "coyotes" guarantee them safe passage across the Sonoran Desert and the border, for a small fee, of course. There is a large wall at the border, and a watchtower. Shots are fired from the watchtower. Rosaria dies. Maria is shot and wounded, and spends the night laying at the base of a Saguaro Cactus in the Sonora. She is visited by a strange old woman who calls herself the Virgen...