Elisa dreams of owning a hairdressing salon in Montevideo. But as a penniless young mother, she finds her success as a prostitute. Still when she falls in love with the pimp Placido, it looks as if all she had ever dreamed of is within reach. She and Placido, along with her friend Loulou, illegally immigrate to Barcelona, hoping to earn "thousands of dollars." But Elisa is faced with disappointment and disenchantment; instead of living the good life, she finds herself back walking the streets and brutalized by Placido. To make matters worse, she′s caught up in the escalating gang war between Uruguayan prostitutes and Brazilian transvestites. Loulou′s death at the hands of a gunman forces Elisa to choose between her idealized loyalty towards Placido and collaboration with a kind-hearted policeman. The decision is made easier when she leams that her children back in Uruguay have been put into an orphanage because Placido failed to keep up their maintenance payments.