The faith of an undocumented mother is tested as she struggles to make money for her infant son and navigate a society alien to her.
Escaping extreme poverty, Marta a Bolivian mother leaves her son at the care of her mother to join her friend Rita and work as a cleaning lady in New York.
As Marta adapts to her new home she notices that the money she makes is more she has ever imagined. It becomes increasingly more difficult to see herself coming back to an unsafe country with an abandoned society with no money or opportunities. She keeps her faith by praying to a clay virgin she brought from home but not being able to be with her son is more pain she can bear. While Marta is gone her mother Dona Angustia is only thinking about her reputation and how to be the host of the next Fiestas Patronales.
Marta’s drive to bring her family to the land of opportunities despite her legal status, makes her realize she has more power than the miraculous virgin she prays to. All she is left with is herself and the chance to make a difference.
The core of Marta’s story is her struggle to survive in an alien society carrying the pain of leaving her son and mother behind. Those feelings echo the emotional abandonment she experienced from her own parents, her mother’s disconnect and selfish desires, perpetuating her story and now repeating it with her son.
Her life is consumed by making money, sending money home and praying. When she realizes the American dream, her mother and the miraculous Virgin are not enough, she finally takes over her life.