Nuria, 12, Fabio, 9, and their mother arrive on a small island in the middle of the Amazon, bordering Brazil, Colombia and Peru. They fled the Colombian armed conflict, in which their father disappeared. One day, he mysteriously reappears in their new home.

Eliú, a country boy, is incarcerated́ in an experimental minors' centre in the heart of the Colombian tropical forest, for a crime he committed with his friend El Mono. Every day, the teenagers perform strenuous manual labour and intense group therapy. One day, El Mono is transferred to the same centre and brings with him a past that Eliú is trying to get away from.

Alfonso is an old farmer who has returned home to tend to his son, who is gravely ill. He rediscovers his old house, where the woman who was once his wife still lives, with his daughter-in-law and grandson. The landscape that awaits him resembles a wasteland. Vast sugar cane plantations surround the house, producing perpetual clouds of ash. 17 years after abandoning them, Alfonso tries to fit back in and save his family.