On a bus to take up his new responsibilities in Los Reyes, Mexico, the newly ordained Father Amaro (Gael Garcia Bernal) is seated next to an elderly man who is also on his journey to a new life as a shopkeeper. When everyone on the bus is robbed by some bandits, the priest gives some money to the now penniless man. This good deed is a sign of Father Amaro's kindness. The place where he is headed will challenge him to stick to that essential goodness in the face of many temptations to do otherwise.
His new superior is Father Benito (Sancho Gracia), who has been in the church for many years. His major project is the construction of a combination hospital, orphanage, and rest home. Donations have been coming in from all sources including the major drug lord in the area. Father Amaro is stunned by the money he receives in paper bags from the mayor's wife. But nothing can match the shock in the community when pictures are printed in the newspaper of Father Benito and the drug dealer at a baptism service and the accompanying article charges that the new hospital is a front to launder drug money.
The bishop (Ernesto Gomez Cruz) is grooming Father Amaro for a position of leadership and power. Now he orders the young priest to draw up a retort for publication saying that the funds for the hospital are from the mayor and the diocese. This order is followed by an even more depressing one. Father Amaro has to deliver excommunication papers to Father Natalio (Damian Alcazar), a priest who practices liberation theology with peasants in the mountains and has been labeled a sympathizer with guerillas.
The author of the newspaper article is Reuben (Andreas Montiel), who has just been jilted by his sixteen-year old girlfriend, Amelia (Ana Claudia Talancon). Ever since Father Amaro arrived, this devoted Catholic, who helps teach catechism to children, has been madly in love with him. Her mother, Sanjuanera (Angelica Aragon), who runs a local restaurant, is the mistress of Father Benito. Believing that the church would be wise to make celibacy optional, Father Amaro finds himself giving in to his sexual impulses toward the beautiful Amelia. Their affair takes place in the shack of the church janitor whose mentally challenged daughter is in the next room.
Carlos Carrera directs from a screenplay by Vicente Lenero based on a 19th century novel by Jose Maria Eca de Queiroz. This hard-hitting Mexican film plunges into the trials and temptations of a young priest who succumbs to his sexual urges and his yearnings for power. It is quite heartbreaking to see the innocence and enthusiasm of Father Amaro dashed on the rocks of pragmatism and the bishop's plans for him. By the sad finale to the drama, which involves the death of one of his most valued parishioners, we see that Father Amaro has become as fierce as a wolf in worldly affairs but lost the essential goodness revealed in that early scene when he put the welfare of another before his own.
The DVD includes an audio commentary by director Carlos Carrera and star Gael Garcia Bernal, and a “Making of . . .” featurette.
