Maria is a bright, attractive and happy sixteen year old. She lives in an apartment above a Chinese Emporium in Downtown Tijuana, Mexico. A city under siege, a melting pot where cultures clash, where warring drug cartels rule and the ancient mythology and colourful traditional Mexico is lost to the criminal underworld of assassins and gangsters who worship their self made unholy saints. 
She is smart and popular in school. Antonio, the captain of baseball and most popular boy in school is her friend and then her lover. He turns Maria’s world upside down when he suddenly leaves without trace. Maria despairs of finding him in a community where men disappear constantly, where there is a violent, bloody war and Tijuana is the front line.  
She faces a moral dilemma that changes the direction of her life when she finds herself in the centre of a hit and run murder trial as a witness along with her fickle friend Elsa. 
She falls out with her friends and she argues with her parents as she tries to fight for justice and the freedom of choice. Her high school teacher and mentor helps prepare her to pursue a university degree against her parent’s wishes. Her Mother tries to support her whilst her Father betrays her. She carries on her search for Antonio even though she is pursued and threatened. She refuses to believe those who constantly try to throw her off the scent and finally he reveals his true nature to her and vindicates her doubts. She discovers that she can trust few people. The more she searches the more she is forced to face the difficult truth that those closest to her are her greatest antagonists. Her will is strong and eventually she finds her destiny.