In 1972, Felix Garrido, the Guam-born father of Teresa and Peggy Garrido, extracts from three-year-old Teresa a promise to always take care of her little sister. Teresa vows that she will, and their father walks out of their lives. His last words to Teresa were that he would come back for them. He never does. Always with thoughts of her father in the back of her mind, with the hope that someday he would come back into their lives, Teresa begins to feel an emotional pull to the island of Guam. She hears the island calling to her. She needs to explore her heritage and to find their father - not only for herself, but for her little sister, Peggy. What Teresa finds instead is that their father is dead, and in a quest to clear his name, she discovers that he'd led a secret, dangerous life after leaving his family, a life that made it impossible for him to return to them.