The novel opens with an introduction to the narrator, a man named Antonio Yammara, in the 1990's in Bogotá. The drug wars of Colombia are wreaking havoc on the nation.
We learn first of Yammara's personal life. As a young professor, he meets a woman named Aura who offers him sexual services for a better grade, which works until they find out she's now pregnant. At a bar, he talks things over with a reformed criminal named Ricardo Laverde. They play pool and Yammara becomes intrigued by the man.
As they learn more and more about each other, Ricardo discovers a mysterious tape with an audio recording. He listens and has a panic attack from the content of the tape. Antonio and Ricardo try to make it to the pool hall to talk about what the tape said, but as they walk in, hitmen attack them in a drive-by shooting. Ricardo dies, and Antonio is injured seriously.
His relationship with Aura becomes nearly irrelevant at this point. Ricardo's daughter, Maya, reaches out to tell him more about her father. Antonio realizes that his safety might be compromised, and he escapes without telling anyone. Ricardo turns out to be a drug smuggler who was caught in America and put in jail for almost 20 years. Maya' mother is dead.
Eventually, Maya and Antonio start a sexual friendship, and at the end of the novel, Aura leaves Antonio for good, taking the baby with her.
