Marc, a young German doctor, arrives in the Colombian metropolis of Cali on an exchange visit and starts work in a local hospital. The operating theatre looks like a war zone: most of his patients have stab or gunshot wounds, the result of street scuffles. The young man from a traditional family of doctors disregards the word of warning from his superiors and sets off into the deprived neighbourhood of Siloé looking for a bit of excitement: he befriends the kids from the local gang and falls in love with a stall-holder called Wanda. His new life of drugs and dangerous encounters taints his reputation as a “German doctor”, and distances him from his colleagues at the hospital and his host family.