Violeta is an aging Cuban prostitute who tells her tempestuous life story to a young male journalist. Her first lover was a revolutionary killed by goverment soldiers. She fled to New York, where she had an affair with a famous American actor. After he gets her pregnant and dumps her, she sells her story to the tabloids in revenge. The revenge escalates - he has his friends rape her, and she slashes his face, putting an end to his career. Back in Cuba, the older Violeta relies on foreign customers to make ends meet.