When Los Angeles news photographer Lucy Vega's uncle, a formidable Hispanic businessman, is killed in a car accident in Malibu during a violent El Niño storm, Lucy and reporter-colleague Beatrice Middleton are out to prove murder. Lucy discovers secret underworld involvement by Mexican cartel members, and bent on finding answers, she travels to Mexico, where she meets a handsome but burned out CNN war correspondent. Trailing the cartel deep into their own territory, they soon find that corruption and brutality are rampant, and Lucy must risk all to find the truth behind her uncle's murder.