National Network for Equitable Library Service

A Latino bar in Toronto, 1978. The men can't take their eyes off Lisa, but there is something about her that scares them off. She is a little too intense, a little too needy. Don, a realtor with a murky South American past, is unfazed. He listens patiently when Lisa tells him she is looking for her father, a wealthy man living in Argentina. Or so she says. Determined to find her roots, Lisa goes to Argentina. It's a journey born of longing for love and the desperate need for something solid to hold on to. Don offers to come along. He is on a mission of his own, looking for his run-away daughter, Asu, a Quechua girl he adopted in Argentina. Or so he says. Soon Lisa acquires a second escort: Santos, a man with connections to the spirit world. He does séances with Lisa because only the saints can help her. Or so he says. Is Santos a charlatan, or a shaman fighting the eternal battle of good against evil? Lisa's search for her father dead-ends. Instead she finds love with Jim, an architect on foreign assignment in Argentina. A happy ending is in sight, when Lisa's life turns into a nightmare. She becomes a pawn in the deadly feud between Santos and Don over Asu. This is a twist on the old story of a young woman running an obstacle course of deception in her quest for love. Argentina in the 70s is a country where kidnapping and violent death no longer make headlines, a country where Lisa learns a new set of survival skills.