Stella Cañete

Sarah is a nurse at a Public Maternity Hospital. The hospital is abuzz with pregnant mothers of all shapes and sizes in different stages of labor. The hospital is short on staff on Christmas Day so Sarah is forced to put in a double shift. Sarah observes the women coming and going in her ward, noting who is a first-timer and who is a veteran. Meanwhile, the wards are overcrowded : two women and their babies sharing single beds while those in labor are spilling unto the hallways. Sarah takes these all in stride, her heart and mind laboring over her own personal pains.

Set against the backdrop of Japanese occupation in the Philippines during WWII. Captain Hiroshi's Filipina lover dies while giving birth to their daughter, and he soon runs out of powdered milk to feed his infant. Conveniently, he encounters Pilar, whose husband, Diego, is being tortured by Hiroshi's soldiers as a suspected guerrilla. Pilar, who begs Hiroshi for Diego's release, ends up working in Hiroshi's household as a wet nurse for the infant.

Decades before the rise of liberalism in Spanish-era colonial Philippines, a young charismatic preacher leads a movement for equality and religious freedom for his fellow native Filipinos. He is hailed as the Christ of the Tagalogs, but is sentenced to death for heresy by both Church and State.