Up until 1961, high school graduate Eriberto Ferrer had had a boring life full of bad memories of his hometown San Genaro on the eastern coast of Lake Maracaibo. Then he receives a letter from Topeka, Kansas, with a surprising proposal from the former maintenance supervisor of the Creole Company in Los Jabillos oil camp. The proposal leads to the discovery of a family secret and sets off a chain of unexpected tragic events which will impel him to travel to distant lands and seas.