1931, a year of nationalisms and excesses: The Chinese are expelled from Sonora; the US deports Mexicans and closes its borders. Twelve desperate people cross the Sonoran desert in a 1929 Chrysler, hoping to find peace in Baja California. As their sojourn exposes both the best and the worst of human nature, racism, greed, and paranoia prove as deadly as the merciless landscape around them.