Buenos Aires, 1970s. Kaddish Poznan chips the names off gravestones for a living, removing traces of disreputable ancestors for their more respectable kin.His wife Lillian works in insurance, earning money when people live longer than they fear.When the government is overthrown in a military coup, their son Pato is arrested by the police and becomes one of the disappeared.Desperate to find him, Kaddish and Lillian turn to the Ministry of Special Cases, a bureaucracy of anguish and false promises, and they discover just how far they are willing to go to save their son...