"Sometimes, democracy must be bathed in blood." General Augusto Pinochet

A young Jesuit priest returns to Chile and a politically divided Catholic Church. After a violent military coup, his bishop assigns Alejandro the task of guiding and protecting the women of a church-sponsored workshop.

At first reluctant to waste his time with lower-class women, Father Saavedra soon discovers their extraordinary courage and unexpected wisdom. He also comes to admire the beauty of the arpilleras, or tapestries, they create to protest the violence of General Pinochet's regime and its personal toll on their lives..

The women of the Holy Rosary workshop, brutally frank and disrespectful of all authority, gradually form a family with Father Saavedra and the three upper-class women who assist them in surprising ways. For nearly seventeen years, young or old, they share their personal stories, learn from each other, and fight against a government determined to incarcerate or kill anyone who opposes or criticizes them and quash their own countrymen's struggle for human dignity.