In 1937, near the border between the Dominican Republic and Haiti, a young Haitian woman named Marie is expecting her first child with Frank, her doting Dominican husband. After her mother's burial, she is awakened in the middle of the night by distant screams. The immediate execution of all Haitians on Dominican soil has been ordered — the so-called “Cut” — and what seals a victim’s fate is whether or not they can pronounce "perejil" (parsley). Marie takes off to find Frank in the next town over, with nothing but the clothes on her back.

1965, Dominican Republic. At a seaside brothel, the lives of a group of prostitutes take a dramatic turn when freedom fighters stage a revolutionary coup, making them realise they can have a better life and perhaps find love. But everything changes when the US army supresses the revolution and takes the brothel as a military base: the girls will have to face the dilemma of either sleeping with the enemy or protecting their dignity at all costs.