In the spring of 1980, Esther Jochmann, a young Austrian woman, flies to San Salvador. Her husband, a journalist, has been killed. She has to identify his corpse so that the authorities will allow it to be transferred to Europe. She learns that Archbishop Oscar Romero, who was also a victim of an assassination, had granted a taped interview to her husband. Padre Manuel hands the tape over to her. Esther accompanies the Padre and John, an American reporter, who are trying to find the murderers.