Julia Vargas Weise

The film portrays the 1952 revolution and 1980 coup in Bolivia through the lives of two brothers, Juan José and Martín. Juan José, the legitimate son of Luís, is transformed, by his experiences as a youth in 1950s, to become a boss of one of the groups of paramilitaries during the 1980 coup. Martín, the illegitimate son of Luís and an indigenous peasant, becomes a trade union leader during that period.

In 1995, several cargo containers are discovered high in the Bolivian Andes. Inside are potentially toxic chemicals, and local policeman Mariscal soon becomes charged with the task of smuggling the containers into neighboring Chile. He recommissions an old train to haul the toxic waste out of Bolivia, but encounters one mishap after another, beginning with the local townspeople who know what's inside, halting the train's path.