In 1968, when her book "In the Kingdom of Mescal" attained cult status, the German-Amerindian painter Nan Cuz was already a famous artist, having acquired renown in the 1950s with her painting "The Madonna of Guatemala". Soon afterwards she would present her work in exhibitions all over Europe and the Guatemalan presidential palace.

This film tells the exceptional life story of Nan Cuz: Born in 1927 to a Mayan Mother, she had to start her life anew at the age of seven in Berlin of the 1930s, the capital of the German Reich. Nan was called by the name of Irmgard then - and had to wear shoes. Her German father, who ran an coffee plantation in Guatemala, worked for the Ministry of Propaganda in Nazi Germany.
Together with her husband Georg Schäfer, she became a pioneer of the hippie era, exchanging ideas with Albert Hofmann, Hubert Fichte, Aldous Huxley and Albert Einstein. In 1971 Nan Cuz and her family emigrated to Guatemala, where she reconnected with her native American roots.