Maria Alverez, a bright, spirited 17 year old, lives with three generations of her family in a cramped house in rural Colombia. Desperate to leave her job stripping thorns from flowers in a rose plantation, Maria accepts a lucrative offer to transport packets of heroine-which she must swallow-to the United States. The ruthless world of international drug trafficking proves to be more than Maria bargained for. She becomes ultimately entangled with both drug cartels and immigration officials. The dramatic thriller builds toward a conclusion so powerful and revealing it could only be based on a thousand true stories.