Dulzura is a portrait of Emilia, an adolescent, third generation Mexican-American girl growing up in East L.A., on the day that she realizes her true character and her life is changed forever. Through the course of a violent act, Emilia discovers that she refuses to be a victim: she rejects her heavy Catholic upbringing, her socialized role as a virgin mother figure yet sexual object to the men in her life, and finally sees her own femininity as inextricably linked with her personal will to survive and carry on.