From the rowdy border town of Tijuana to the underground tunnels of Guadalajara, a young woman must fight to keep her family together.
California and Mexico, 1927: Mariana has a hardworking but idyllic life on a citrus ranch in California. She is sheltered and protected by her family and older brother, Emilio. That is, until tragedy strikes. Emilio is murdered. The day after his funeral, her family is deported to Mexico, a place she barely remembers--and a country where the citizens are at war with their own government.
Prohibition north of the border has caused Tijuana to erupt with new saloons, casinos, and brothels, earning the moniker 'Satan's Playground.' Mariana's beauty gives her many opportunities to help support her family, but she is overly naïve. When Mariana trusts the wrong person, her mother ships her off to Guadalajara to find her father--right into the heart of the rebellion.
Mariana has never spent a single night away from her family. Now, she is on a two-day train ride through the desert with nothing but a suitcase and an address. In Guadalajara, women are detained at gunpoint, and dead men hang in park trees with warning notes pinned to their pant legs.
Federal soldiers are murdering innocent civilians, including priests, women, and children. Will Mariana find her father before it is too late? Will she finally discover her own strength...or end up dead?
Based on true events of the Cristero War, a war Mexico's government and the Catholic church have tried to keep buried.
