In his quest to build a drug empire in the 1980s, Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo (Diego Luna) takes the helm of the Guadalajara Cartel, unifying traffickers. Meanwhile, DEA Agent Kiki Camarena (Michael Pena) moves his wife and young son from California to Guadalajara to take on a new post. As Camarena gathers intelligence on Felix and becomes more entangled in his mission, a tragic chain of events unfolds, affecting the drug trade - and the war against it - for years to come.