Paula, a social worker from Spain, is sent to Venezuela to evaluate conditions in the penitentiary system. She meets up with Soledad, who is being shunned because the other prisoners believe that she is a santera--a faith healer who uses the ritual powers of witchcraft to evil effect: Soledad was arrested for killing her brother-in-law by casting a spell on him. Investigating and discovering Soledad's secret past, her occult powers, and ancestral myths, Paula, the "rational" urban professional must work to understand the growing impact that this indigenous Latin-American witchcraft is beginning to have on her own life.