Juan, a young man convicted of terrorism, is given amnesty from a Lima prison; he boards a bus to return home and, in his mind's eye, recalls events in his village near Huaraz when he was 10 or 12.

A wealthy Asian couple - he Chinese, wife Keiko, a Japanese - arrive in Paper Moon Bay, an isolated town on the west coast of Canada, for a respite. Theirs is an emotionally distant marriage ...