It is adapted from the novel of the same title by Mario Mendoza Zambrano which is based on the spree killing committed by Campo Elías Delgado that took place in Bogotá in 1986.
Eliseo, a middle-aged English teacher and veteran of the Vietnam War, has difficulties creating and maintaining relationships (especially with women).
After a heated argument with his mother, Eliseo loses his temper, shoots her, and then sets the place on fire.
Her job is to act as bait to attract wealthy men in a bar, incapacitate them by putting Scopolamine in their drinks, and then lure them into a cab.
She gets in a cab to go home one night after a successful operation, but the driver and an accomplice kidnap her and take her to an old taxi shop where they assault and rape her.
Regretting their deaths and all the robberies committed before, she quits the gang and gets a job as a waitress at Pozzetto, an Italian restaurant.
Father Ernesto visits the woman in prison where her demented diatribes predict future events.
Traumatized by his encounters with the woman and unable to restrain his carnal desires, Ernesto loses his faith and refuses to go on as a priest.