Synopsis
Alejandro, a lonely university professor, is facing a midlife crisis filled with strange dreams and chest pains. On his birthday, a car tire crashes into his apartment, unveiling a Volkswagen Beetle wrecked nearby, devoid of occupants.
Alejandro learns he has two hereditary heart diseases, so he decides to know more about his father, who abandoned him before he was born. He visits his grandmother, who reveals that his father died of a heart attack. Shocked, he embarks on a quest to find out more about him.
At the university, during protests and confrontations between the police and the students, Alejandro saves Jaime, a student with indigenous features, and they form a protective bond. As the investigation into Alejandro's father's death unfolds, his life melds with his dreams, blurring past, present, and future. Vivid dreams feature a Volkswagen Beetle journeying through the jungle with a boy and a man resembling him.
Reality shifts; his grandmother vanishes, and his father's body disappears. Alejandro suffers a crisis and violently confronts Jaime.
Returning home, Alejandro finds his father's lifeless body. Shocked, he realizes this experience has been a spiritual journey guided by Jaime and a Shaman in the jungle.
In the spiritual layer, Alejandro experiences past events, including his father's abandonment and his struggles. He witnesses his father's happiness with a new family and his lack of love for him.
He relives childhood rebuffs and the day his father finally met him, picking him up in a Volkswagen Beetle for his grandfather's funeral. Alejandro follows his father to an apartment, witnessing his suicide. Determined to sever ties with his past, Alejandro confronts his father's spirit by breaking his link with a history he doesn't want to repeat. Alejandro douses his apartment in gasoline, which is now just a simple rack, before lighting it on fire in the dawn of the jungle.
The following day, Alejandro navigates a jungle river on his way home. Upon reaching Bogotá, he attends a birthday party. He pauses before a mirror, finally finding peace.