Panceta (Lautaro Delgado) is a young pipe-cutter who smuggles the scrap pieces of pipe to his garage workshop where he constructs make-shift guns that he sells to small-time kingpin Tacom (Juan Jose Ortiz). When meeting up with Tacom for an exchance at a benefit given by Don Fermin (Sergio Ferreiro) for a boy who lost an eye to a bullet, Panceta is far more interested in Don Fermin's granddaughter Clara (Camila Cruz) and talks her into going along with him on his weekend fishing trip. When Don Fermin cannot locate Clara the next day, Tacom - who has been sleeping with her on the side - suspects that she is with Panceta, and - under the guise of his concern with Don Fermin - alerts the authorities since Clara is a minor. Panceta is adamant that his mother (Tina Serrano) remain ignorant of his work (he tells her that he builds shelves in his workshop); but when he learns that Tacom has used the authorities to intimidate her and exposed his secret, Panceta sends Clara home and goes after Tacom with one of his own makeshift guns.

Although publicity materials want to make the film look like a badass action thriller, CANO DORADO is a more of a character drama. Panceta is given to the occasional violent fantasy, but he's a small-time hood who is more concerned that his mother does not find out about his work than getting caught (when Clara calls him an "arms dealer" he seems to deny it not so much out of any guilt or fear as much as he seems to think she's exaggerating what he really does). Tacom and his partner Melli (Alfredo Bertazzoni) intimidate the locals and run weapons, but their big get-rich plan is to partner with Don Fermin to get a piece of the action from his restaurant after seeing how much money the charity benefit raked in. Tacom is a paranoid drug addict and a sniveling coward when a weapon is pointed in his face, and Melli (at the end) seems at a loss when he cannot find Tacom. The slatternly Clara is one of the few characters who really grows by the end of the film. While actress Cruz is bewitching, the acting honors go to Delgado, Ferreiro, Serrano, and Luis Campos as Panceta's father's friend Polaco. Nods also to Daniel Ortega's gorgeous cinematography - shooting with the Red One rival Silicon S12K camera - of the muddy rivers and idyllic forests, and - in conjunction with editor Mariano Dawidson - one particularly marvelous scene transition.