Rafael "El Caballo" García is a professional baseball player who has just lost the most important game of his career. When his mother dies, he has to return to the town where he grew up and face the ghosts of his past. As if this were not enough, he finds out that he has been suspended for the use of steroids and this puts his baseball future in doubt.

Like many young men in the Dominican Republic, 19-year-old Miguel "Sugar" Santos dreams of winning a slot on an American baseball team. Indeed, his talents as a pitcher eventually land him a slot on a single-A team in Iowa, but culture shock, racism and other curveballs threaten to turn Sugar's dream sour.