1918. 1st U.S. Intervention in the Dominican Republic. Two American's marines walk in an old and forgotten reed bed looking for an special unit called "Los Abejones".

In a desolate town in the Cibao region, two brothers and their mother live in the midst of a crisis. Their father, a perico ripiao musician, has been murdered for speaking out against the Trujillo dictatorship. This prevents Luis, the older brother, from obtaining his mother's approval to accept a long-awaited scholarship to a polytechnic school in the capital. Patria gradually changes her mind, while Chico, her younger brother, can't understand why Luis wants to leave.