Cruz Montoya (Kuno Becker) is a rock star on the West Coast poetry circuit, where audiences from San Diego to Seattle gather to hear him perform. One day, he gets an unexpected phone call alerting him that his father, Senior (Ruben Bladés), is fatally ill.
Cruz rushes home to his dying father, a reclusive former schoolteacher still leading a traditional life in their once bucolic mountain valley, now ravaged by poverty, drug abuse, and violence. Once home, Cruz retreats to his old life, managing a Santa Fe hip-hop club owned by local crime boss, Emilio (Miguel Sandoval), who Senior used to run with back in the day. Seduced by the fast action and easy money, Cruz loses his poetic voice, his identity, and almost his life, before he finds a way to heal his family, community, and himself.