In the early 1980s, at the beginning of what would become a 12-year-long civil war, El Salvador's talented football team was one national institution upon which both the left and the right could agree. When the team pulled off a stunning 1-0 upset against Mexico and qualified to compete in the 1982 World Cup, it was a high point for the tiny country's national pride. Unfortunately, the team's Cinderella story devolved into a nightmarish farce.
Anina Yatay Salas is a ten-year-old whose name spells trouble: those three palindromes in a row are an ongoing source of teasing at school. When a playground fight results in mysterious punishment, Anina will learn to put her problems in perspective and empathize with others in this sweet little daydream of a tale.
Helena and Ernesto's marriage is in problems when Helena's cousin arrives to complete his rehab at his isolated mountain home. His arrival releases repressed emotions and desires and puts them in contact with each other.
Alejandro, the youngest of his recently deceased father's two sons, is brimming with anger, upset that his father and older brother have for so long committed his mother to a rural Colombian mental asylum. He's convinced that the place for his schizophrenic mother is at home with her loved ones, not in an institution. While on an unannounced visit, he kidnaps his mother to take her home with him once and for all – but Alejandro is soon overwhelmed by his mother's mental incapacities as they embark on a journey of love and commitment, of emotional and physical extremes.
