diego mariano (ku aquino) is the caretaker of the land surrounding a sanctuary; he is the father of 14-year-old maya (mary joy apostol), whose mother died from childbirth. maya wants to explore the land beyond the family's isolated shack. diego wants his daughter to be self-sufficient, so he teaches her to fire a gun. after failing her first shooting lessons, maya wanders off to the forest sanctuary with her father's dual barrel shotgun and deliberately kills a philippine eagle, an endangered animal.