Esteban, a Nicaraguan ex-Sandinista, is taken along with fourteen other men from Central America with the promise of working aboard a cargo ship. However, the Urus is rusty and abandoned on the Brooklyn dock. The crew lives in terrible conditions for months. When Esteban leaves the ship, and prowls the neighborhoods of Brooklyn in search of food and relief, it presents a fascinating image of the United States, seen through unsophisticated eyes.