On the last working day before the compulsory retirement, the bigoted and bitter US Chief of Customs and Boarder Protection, Marshall, confines a group of Latin American immigrants in the airport. While Officers Bob Estevez and Sandra interview the immigrants to investigate their real intentions, the alcoholic Marshall humiliates them with his prejudice. When the Brazilian Nonato, who has been living in North America for ten years and is the owner of a small catering for workers, presents his legal documents that prove that he is returning to America after visiting his daughter in Brazil, the abusive Marshall does not accept his documentation and degrades him and his private life with humiliations. Nonato argues with Marshall and has a nervous breakdown that leads the situation to a tragedy. Marshall is imprisoned and when he is released years later terminal with a tumor in the kidney, he travels to the Northeastern of Brazil to seek out Nonato's daughter Luiza. In Recife, he meets the young prostitute Bia that agrees to guide him to Petrolina, where the Luiza lives, in a quest for redemption.
—Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil