Angélica, a Spanish expatriate living in San Diego, visits Tijuana for the first time and discovers the American Immigration Service will not let her return home to San Diego. She is further frustrated because the American Consulate is inexplicably unavailable to help her. While waiting for the consulate, she encounters an itinerate musician, a mute trombonist, who gets her attention by tapping her on the head with his trombone slide. From the moment she acknowledges him, he pokes her relentlessly with the instrument. She tries to escape from him, but is unable to. She even kicks him savagely, but he remains undeterred in his bizarre mission, and Angelica only feels guilty. He pursues her from Tijuana, eventually leading her illegally under the international border fence to her home in San Diego, all the while, poking her with the trombone. At first, she hates the annoyance, but after three years, she has grown accustomed to it, and is terrified at the idea of losing it.