Javier Espinoza manages a young rock band short on money to record their debut album. When the slog of playing their hearts out for tiny crowds in Texas border towns gets to be too much, a dangerous idea takes hold of Javier: smuggling migrants across the border for cash. He knows a thing or two about it, after all. He made his own perilous journey from a farm in Coahuila to the United States at age eleven, surviving brutal coyotes and dodging authorities. So he and the band find a ramshackle tour bus and an alibi and are soon plunged into the heart of Juárez, where the harsh realities of human trafficking, impassive border agents, and ruthless cartels are waiting.
