[1] The film was shot in the Mexican state of Zacatecas and addresses issues such as self-assertion, loss, adolescence, and sexual relations.

The title refers to a widely known Mexican saying, which means "to cut all ties holding someone to something or someone"—something Hernán Cortés is believed to have done when he and his men set foot for the first time in continental America, in order to avoid mutiny or desertion during the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire.

Elena (Irene Azuela) and Sebastián (Ángel Onésimo Nevárez) are a teenaged brother and sister who have been reunited at their home while looking after their ailing mother, singer Eugenia Díaz (Claudette Maille).

As the reality of Eugenia's fate becomes clearer, Elena and Sebastián's confusion about love, mortality and family becomes more acute, and circumstances become even more muddled when they take in a boarder, Aurora (Jessica Segura), who falls in Sebastián's wealthy schoolmate Ismael (Ramón Valdez Urtiz).

The film won two Ariel Awards in 2008: for Best Actress (Irene Azuela) and for Best Original Music (Alejandro Giacomán, songs by Joselo Rangel).