In 1980 a group of guerrillas take up arms in the Andes and declare war on the Peruvian state. Their leader, a university professor who calls himself Chairman Gonzalo, harangues his armed group, Sendero Luminoso, to unleash a bloodbath to end the oppression of man by man that, according to the terrorists, has plunged the country into misery. Twenty years later, a young journalist, Julian Mendieta, tries to decipher what happened in his country during those years and how Peru could plunge into an escalation of violence that cost the lives of thousands of people, mostly innocent peasants. Julián will meet two people: Benedicto Jiménez, the policeman who captured the leadership of Sendero Luminoso, and Samin Palomino, who went out in search of his sister who had been captured by the subversives and was enrolled in the so-called People's Guerrilla Army. These two stories will alternate with Mendieta's initiation into police journalism, where he will cover all kinds of crimes. Among them, some serial murders linked to the violent past of his country.