Each year, hundreds of illegal migrants die in the deserts spanning the border between the United States and Mexico. Some of these migrants are criminals and drug-runners, but most are desperate work-seekers. "Coyotes" act as border guides and charge a large fee for dodging the border patrols and delivering their human charges to the promised land. An unknown number of decaying bodies litter the unforgiving desert, occasionally stumbled upon by ranchers, prospectors or body hunting agents such as Noon. The finds are removed, documented and stored by the authorities. The pathetic human remains make for excellent research material for meticulous and obsessive forensics specialist, Gayle. All of the human remains have a tragic story and families down south, hoping for word of their missing loved ones, form part of the wider project for Gayle. In her line of work she has pretty much seen it all, until Noon turns out the pockets of his latest corpses, to discover a pair of hummingbirds. These tiny tropical charms lead Gayle and Noon to Central America and to the Gulf coast in search of the origins of the men carrying the birds. But Noon is not telling all that he knows about the dead men. In fact, there's a lot that Noon is not telling Gayle. Noon has his own personal desert project, which involves drugs, guns, cash and a sexy as well as undocumented Mexican migrant, Carminda, who takes refuge in his home. Is Carminda just a young woman seeking work in the states? Were the dead men simple, migrant workers? Why does Carminda claim that one of the men is her father and why were the men carrying dead birds in their pockets, birds that are found nowhere else but in Cuba?