María, a 17-year-old Kaqchikel Maya, lives with her parents on a coffee plantation at the foot of an active volcano. She is set to be married to the farm's foreman. But María longs to discover the world on the other side of the mountain, a place she cannot even imagine. And so she seduces a coffee-harvester who wants to escape to the USA. When this man leaves her behind, María discovers her own world and culture anew.
Claudia and Maria are a young couple in Guatemala City who dream of all-night dance parties in the land of plenty. When they're attacked by three circus workers, level-headed Claudia tries to deter the more foolhardy Maria from plotting revenge.
The story of the Maya People through four stories which allude to important moments in the in its history over the course of the last half millennium. The central protagonist in all these stories is a young woman named Maya who witnesses the invasion of her homeland and must run away to survive. Then living a nomadic existence as a refugee across the centuries she experiences the sufferings of her people resulting from the loss of her ancestral lands and increasingly her cultural traditions.
