When his grandfather falls ill and needs an urgent surgery, Mateo, a young painter and an expert trainer of carrier pigeons, sells 42 pigeons to a dangerous Tijuana drug trafficker named “El Pinto,” in order to pay for the operation. However, the pigeons fail
El Pinto, causing him to lose millions, and the drug dealer comes to Mateo with an ultimatum: recover the money in five days or his family will die. And in order to retrieve the money, Mateo will do something that tests the faith of his entire country; kidnapping
the sacred image of the Virgen de Guadalupe de la Basílica, which causes pandemonium throughout Mexico.