The stranger, Salvador (Carlos de la Torre), is sent by a mining company to evaluate the geology of the area, but must stay in Manyaycuna over the weekend until travel can be provided.

Salvador appears to be unwelcome he has arrived at the beginning of Tiempo Santo ("Holy Time"), a syncretic religious festival spanning Good Friday and Easter Sunday, and is sequestered in a barn by the town's mayor, Cayo.

Cayo is the father of the strangely named Madeinusa (Magaly Solier), a teenage girl who is the eponymous protagonist of the film, and has long been trying to take her virginity.

Madeinusa, desperate to leave the village and go to Lima, where her mother left for many years before, becomes interested in Salvador and has a conversation with him in the family's barn.

Madeinusa begs Salvador to take her with him back to Lima against the backdrop of the high sierra Andean landscape.