A mexican-american widower, Salvador, and his son, Junior, live a simple life in a small section of urban Los Angeles. With his eldest son, Memo, in Afghanistan, and Junior, eager to enlist, Salvador buries himself in the everyday world of landscaping. When a strange letter arrives, followed by an uncivil military visit, Salvador is forced to reexamine the war he supports, and son, he admires. Suspected by the neighborhood, hounded by a local radio host, scorned by his youngest son, Salvador finds his simple, everyday world, tangled, and unjust.