

They are headed to Maryland, where their cousin Cesar lives. Soledad and Rebeca are from Honduras and are fleeing from a gang leader who has taken an interest in them.

They come across two teen girls, Soledad and Rebeca, who teach them how to get on and off La Bestia, a freight train that migrants commonly hitch a ride on, though it requires jumping onto a moving train. Instead, they continue on foot to Huehuetoca and stay at a migrant shelter. The goal is to fly to a border city to cross, but at the airport, Lydia has no documentation for Luca. Carlos's wife Meredith puts them in a van pretending to be with a group of American missionaries to get to Mexico City. Lydia and Luca travel north by bus from Acapulco to Chilpancingo to find Carlos, a friend of Sebastian's. Lydia and her 8-year-old son Luca are the sole survivors in the attack, and they must flee Mexico. She met him as a customer at her bookstore. Javier is the leader of Los Jardineros and had also been a close personal friend of Lydia's.

Lydia Quixano's entire family is gunned down after her journalist husband, Sebastian, publishes an expose on a cartel boss, Javier Fuentes.
