Based on poet Jimmy Santiago Baca's actual life adventures, the movie focuses on half-brothers Paco and Cruz, along with their bi-racial cousin Miklo. It opens in 1972, because the three are members of the East L.A. gang known as the"Vatos Locos", and also the narrative focuses on the way the barbarous offense and the influence of narcotics alter their own lives. Miklo is incarcerated and sent to San Quentin, where he makes a"home" for themself. Cruz becomes an excellent artist, but he is overcome by a heroin addiction . Paco becomes a cop and an enemy into his"carnal", Miklo.