Cayetana de los Heros is a lonely and solemn 8-year-old child growing up in Peru during the turbulent 1980s. She comes from a wealthier middle-class family and even has a chauffeur to cart her to and from school. Her parents are divorced, and she rarely sees her disinterested father, the archetype of a Latino playboy, which leaves her feeling adrift. She lives with her remarried mother and stepfather in a gated home on the outskirts of Lima, tended to by servants while they travel abroad.
The film opens with a picture show and an unseen narrator recounting the costly sacrifices Peruvian military leaders once made for the country. The scene shifts to a classroom full of girls just as a siren blares, and the children are evacuated. A driver picks Cayetana up from school, calling her “Miss Cayetana,” and yet she remains mostly silent on the ride home, save for a small moment where she offers her medication to a beggar and remarks that it suppresses the appetite.
Back at home, Cayetana sits alone at a table laden with food and refuses to touch it, until a maid scolds her and clears the dishes. The maids fuss over her every morning, dressing her to look pretty for her mother’s return, yet she must be dragged out of a hiding place to meet her mother. She sits stiffly on her mother’s lap as her stepfather looks on and hands her gifts, but the moment the news of her mother’s pregnancy arrives, Cayetana recoils in anger and storms off to her room. She even runs away for a time, only to get lost and forced to come home. In a climactic move, she chooses to punish her mother by withdrawing all affection and, on the baby’s delivery date, contemplating an ultimate withdrawal from life.
At school, Cayetana finds a glimmer of companionship in her cousin Jimena, a chronically ill girl who follows her to the bathroom and shares her own lunch when Cayetana discards hers. This fragile bond gives Cayetana a rare moment of connection, but the mood at home grows heavier as she sinks further inward and acts out. Her worried parents decide to send her away on a vacation to Lima with Jimena’s family after the holidays, hoping a change of scenery might help.
The vacation is serene and sunlit—boating, swimming, beach days, and leisurely meals—but it’s all overshadowed by the looming absence of structure in Cayetana’s life. The happiness breaks when her mother and stepfather arrive unannounced, hoping to surprise her. Cayetana refuses even a single hug from her visibly pregnant mother, and the warmth of the trip quickly collapses. A medical emergency strikes Jimena, who is whisked to the hospital, leaving Cayetana to wander the beach alone. She climbs a daunting sand dune and has a vision-like encounter with the Peruvian heroes and with Jimena, who tells her that she loves her and will always watch over her.
When the vacation ends, it’s clear the political situation has deteriorated further—the family’s house has been robbed. A few days later, Cayetana’s mother and stepfather leave again for the hospital, leaving her in the care of the household staff. She is then taken to the hospital to see her newborn half-brother, wandering the wards and eventually ending up outside Jimena’s room. The doctor there tests Jimena’s coordination by miming the actions for her, revealing just how fragile Jimena’s mind and body have become; she no longer recognizes Cayetana. Moving on to the maternity ward and nursery, Cayetana makes a startling choice: she points to the wrong baby, declaring she will not be upstaged by her mother’s new son. The confusion and jealousy give way to a raw moment as she ventures into the nursery and finally encounters her own new baby brother.
This story traces a child’s inward battle amid a country in turmoil, balancing tenderness and envy, family trauma, and the ache of being unseen. The film lingers on Cayetana’s quiet, searching gaze as she negotiates love, loss, and belonging, culminating in a moment of unexpected clarity and a new, complicated sense of family belonging.
