 In Panama s Female Correctional Center, against the backdrop of an indifferent city, fiction and reality merge. Three women who are paying their dues for their unlawful actions explain the reasons for their crimes. Two of them, real victims of spousal abuse tell their stories. The fictional character Esperanza Navarro pianist, composer and music teacher, evokes hers. The physical and psychological abuse, to which her spouse subjected her, changed Esperanza s life indelibly. Everything changed when Alma, her prodigious student, encouraged her to write music again. This small window of hope is shattered on the evening when Jose discovers that Alma has returned to her music. He is, once again, threatened by his wife s talent and by Alma.