Arturo Blanco is a 38 year-old Chilean-Canadian doctor who has lived for most of his life in Montreal. After losing his job and his marriage as a result of spiraling addictions to alcohol and pain killers, he has returned to Chile and is working at a free medical clinic in the low-income Santiago neighbourhood of Puente Alto. As he struggles to come to grips with his addictions and with the unfamiliar country that he has returned to he meets Rony, a 10 year-old boy living in Puente Alto. With a mother in prison and a brother constantly involved drug-related violence, Rony opens a window for Arturo onto the darkest sides of life in this neglected and crime-ravaged neighborhood. Ultimately, he provides Arturo with the incentive that he has been missing. In order to save Rony from the life that he seems destined for, Arturo has to save himself as well.