Synopsis
Ely is seventeen years old. She lives with her mother, Susana, in a small apartment in a high-rise housing complex. Susana rarely leaves the house. She spends all day in her room, smoking cigarettes in front of the television. Mother and daughter have little contact beyond the few words they exchange at night when Ely gets home from work.
Ely is in high school, repeating her junior year. It’s harder and harder for her to make it to her classes, maybe because she is so busy or maybe because she doesn’t have much in common with other kids her age.
After school, Ely works at a pet shop near the complex, performing menial tasks. Though she works a lot of hours, she doesn’t earn much. Ely is, to a large extent, the one who keeps her and her mother’s household running.
Ely has an occasional relationship with someone she likes a great deal, who in fact, she is secretly in love with, and he's an older man. She knows, though, that she has no future with him: Raúl is not only married with two kids, but also her boss at the pet shop.
When Ely learns that she is pregnant, her inner world explodes, even though she is careful to go about her daily routine as if nothing were different. Though apparently Ely has made up her mind not to have the baby, inside she is not so sure. She is afraid and upset, and she knows that whatever she decides to do there is no turning back.