Rafael's world is a place where armed guards patrol a dump to prevent poor families from foraging through the garbage. With his family, Rafael lives on the edge of the refuse heap in a forgotten corner of America's Southwest. Desperately poor, he is determined to give his family some respite from their dire poverty, even if it means trading his own life to do it.

Rafael finds a man who says he will pay many thousands of dollars in exchange for his life: and so he agrees to "star" in a snuff film.