It's a time of grumbling rebellion and brooding revolution. Gabriel de la Serna, the teenage son of a well-to-do family, has gone into hiding. He fled, limping, into the forest. He had come to San Juan, a little village nestled in the mountains, to paint the Passion of the Christ. There he came to understand the passion of the villagers, the country folk, all victims of military repression. Nourished by a sense of divine justice, he begins to understand the villainy of those in power and their cronies. When he's eventually taken in and treated by the guerillas camped out in the forest, he lies about his family name and swaps his pencils and paint brushes for firearms. As he gazes beyond the surface and deeper into the depths, Gabriel also discovers his own humanity, made of flesh and desires...