The small coastal town of Roquesas de Mar (village invented by the author) is shocked by the disappearance of one of her neighbors sixteen years of age. When days later found the girl's body, horribly maimed in the back of the house of one of the most famous residents of the village, all Alsina Alvaro suspect as the perpetrator.
Five friends go out for the best night of their lives and their last together. To hunt for love, cheap drinks and salvation.
Guatemala, in the 80s. The worst days of the Civil war. Andrés is 9 years old. He lives with Pedro González, one of the men who massacred all the women and children in his village. Andrés has survived, but he's scared. Pedro's wife, María, is also scared, scared to go out, scared to lose Andrés, whom she considers as "her new son" - even Pedro is scared, scared of himself and what the Army bounds him to do. Andrés would like to run away but he also wants to stay in his new family - until his sister appears.
Set during the civil war in 1980's Guatemala. A group of six men and a woman must find a way to work together to protect the village of Las Cruces from an impending military attack. The indigenous population of the area, inevitably is torn between their need to help and thoughts of fleeing, for self preservation.
Iluminada lives a poor life but her luck turns around when she wins a prize from a Rina brand soap.
A young woman is brutally assaulted by gang members in the middle of Guatemala City. As usual, the authorities have no suspects or leads, leaving the girl to become one more victim in a society where thousands of women are assaulted every year. Jacobo, the victim's brother, along with Antonio, his best friend, decide in their frustration to extract some their kind of revenge.
Margarita has a tumor in the base of the brain that made her blind, although the doctors assure that with an operation the girl could recover her sight. Blanca, her mother, will do anything she can to gather the money for the operation even put in risk the security of her community.
In Guatemala, violence is contagious. The neighbors of Villas de La Esperanza, in fear of an eventual invasion of those infected by violence, arm themselves and patrol nights, risking their lives for the safety of their families. But battling violence with violence only spreads the contagion, and the neighbors will realise that the greatest danger is not what lurks outside their secure gated community. The real danger lies within. In Guatemala violence is contagious, and we are all infected.
