On the Hook

Hector keeps his head down. He is a champion chess player, he puts in shifts at the grocery store where his family works, and he takes the time to teach his little sister how to shoot a basketball overhand. Then Joey, whose older brother Chavo leads the Discípulos gang, tells Hector that Joey plans to kill him. It may not be today or tomorrow, but it will happen. Hector is too terrified to respond.

From then on, Hector lives with the threat of violence each time he steps outside. He tries to blend in and stay out of Joey's sight. When a dispute between Chavo and Hector's brother Fili grows more serious, though, Hector can no longer stay on the sidelines. The violent clash that follows pulls him into situations he never saw coming, including a reform school where he must live alongside Joey.

The story turns on a choice Hector has to make: whether to let the desire for payback consume him, or to go back to the everyday effort of building a life.