After her mother's death and father's arrest in 1913, twelve-year-old Petra Luná leads what is left of her family out of the ravages of Mexico's revolution towards the U.S. border, following what her abuelita calls her "barefoot dreams." Her grandmother's term refers to the fact that they are not meant to go far, just like them as barefoot peasants, but Petra vows to cross battlefields and deserts to make her dreams a reality in a better life in the United States.