Left-leaning director Loach sets his sometimes gripping, sometimes over-bearing political/love story in war torn Nicaragua in the late 1980s. George (Carlyle) is a Glasgow bus driver who helps out passenger Carla (Cabezas), a Nicaraguan emigre who raises money for the Sandanista cause. George falls in love with Carla and decides that the only way she can get on with her life is to confront her former lover Antonio, who was maimed by the contras and has disappeared. The two lovers go to Nicaragua, where George is totally out of his environment. Shot (with great difficulty) on location in Nicaragua.