Bill was a golden boy of the banking industry. Living the good life in Los Angeles, he had a nice house, a
good job, and a loving wife. Then he got greedy, lost everything, and was sentenced to an eight-year
prison term. Instead of giving up his freedom, he jumps bail. While in hiding, his former driver Luis finds
him and offers to get him out of the country. But Bill must hole up for a few days more before the truck
will leave. Luis brings Bill to Eddie's, a cheap Central American dive in downtown LA. There, Bill meets
Angela, a free spirited Latina.
Bill has been on the run for weeks; he's depressed and suicidal. Angela offers to take him in when she
discovers he has nowhere to go.
Bill had always succeeded when he focused on the future, but finds himself at loose ends with the
present. He was always concerned with the next big sale, buying a bigger house, a bigger car. He never
learned to stop and enjoy the moment. His ambition and his desire for more power and money is what
led him to overextending his reach at the bank and ultimately to a prison sentence.
Angela, on the other hand, lives in the now. She doesn't worry about tomorrow – she'll deal with that
when it happens. She believes in living life to the fullest and experiencing everything as deeply and as
fully as possible.
In her apartment, a "living scrapbook," Angela exposes Bill to a whole new way of thinking. She explains
how his actions at the bank – as well as those of his government – have far reaching consequences for
other people in the world, something he'd never considered. She begins to show him how to live in the
now and to really feel things, not just breeze through life focused on what will happen in the future.
Angela points out to Bill that his problems were caused by the American way of life and American
culture. For Angela, who migrated to the States from Nicaragua, a country that had been devastated by
civil war, everything she has or was given is deeply appreciated. As a child, she had very little: the
Contras had killed her parents and her grandmother raised her. For Angela, the American way of life –
always running, running after more money to buy more things and paying more bills – seemed so
disconnected from living. She tells Bill that, "rather than enjoying what you had, you killed yourself for
the future."
For Angela, sex is another way to live in the now. Bill, raised in a traditional family where desires were
hidden, had sex with his wife once a week. Angela, on the other hand, believes there is no reason not to
find pleasure wherever she can. She wants to enjoy life as much as possible, and finds the greatest
physical joy in life is through uninhibited sex. She pushes Bill's sexual boundaries to open his mind to
new experiences, and to focus on the now, not the future.
When her lover, Diego, returns unexpectedly from a trip, he interrupts Angela and Bill's nascent love
story.
Through Angela, Bill is forced to look at his mindset and his old way of life. He comes to terms with the
excess of his American lifestyle and makes the connection between wealth and global policies. After
confronting his ex-wife, and strengthened through Angela's generous spirit, he is able to leave his
country and find a new life.
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