In 1980s Peru, a dyslexic drug trafficker and grade school dropout and a wealthy, famous playwright labeled a terrorist for his play about killing the president form an unlikely relationship as cellmates in the notorious Collectors Prison of San Jacinto. The playwright convinces the men in their block to stage a performance of the play that landed him in jail, bringing a sense of comradery and unity; however, months after his release, he learns that the entire block, including his lover, was killed in the military suppression of a prison revolt.

In pre-Revolutionary Cuba, a senator attempts suicide by shooting himself in the stomach, leaving him unconscious but stable. To figure out the cause, his wife looks back on the harrowing moments that changed the trajectory of their marriage.