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.

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".