In Bogota, Colombia, Fabio Maria Restrepo , a gangster and drug runner, is having a meeting with Don Luis , a drug lord, to pay off his remaining debt and leave his employment. Fabio, however, knows that Don Luis will put a hit out on him for leaving with a valuable item that he holds and Don Luis wants - a small disk with valuable information on the drug lords - so he rushes home to prepare his wife, Alicia (Cynthia Addai-Robinson) and his young daughter, Cataleya )
While Alicia packs, Fabio hands Cataleya a business card, which should give her entry to the U.S. embassy, in case she finds herself alone. Fabio hands Cataleya the item that Don Luis wants, telling her not to lose it and to give it to the Ambassador telling her that it is "her passport". He also gives Cataleya an address in Chicago. Alicia finishes packing, and Fabio grabs his wife and child and prepares to escape; at that point, however, Marco and his thugs have the house surrounded. Fabio and Alicia have Cataleya sit at the kitchen table and run down the stairs with guns, attempting to hold off Don Luis's capos. Cataleya watches both her parents being gunned down.
One of Marco's thugs runs up the stairs and points a gun at Cataleya, but Marco waves him away and sits across the table with her. He tells her that her father died because he betrayed Don Luis, but tells Cataleya that "smart girls always get what they want," and instructs her to give him the disk that her father handed her. Cataleya instead stabs Marcos in the hand with a kitchen knife and escapes her house. She runs through the streets of Bogota, pursued by thugs from all directions, and is able to slip away by hiding inside a water sewer. She then uses the business card her father gave her to get into the U.S. Embassy and goes to the Ambassador's office. Cataleya regurgitates the disk which she swallowed onto the Ambassador's desk. In exchange for this, they give her a passport and a small amount of cash, and fly her to Miami.
At the airport, Department of Social Services takes custody of Cataleya. Cataleya pretends to want to use the bathroom and escapes to take a bus to the address in Chicago. It turns out that her uncle Emilio - her mother's brother - lives there, and takes her in. Cataleya sleeps at Emilio's house in his dead son's room. After a brief conversation at breakfast, revealing that Emilio killed the thugs who killed his son, Cataleya reveals that she wants to be a killer.
Emilio takes Cataleya to be enrolled in an expensive private school by bribing the principal, but Cataleya snubs the principal and later berates Emilio for not taking her seriously. She says if he won't teach her how to be a killer, she'll find someone else. Emilio tells Catleya that if she wants to be a killer, she has to be smart, psychological, and know her surroundings, otherwise, "(she'll) end up dead within 5 years". He makes her a deal. If she goes to school, he will teach her how to be an assassin.
Fifteen years later, two police officers are sitting in a squad car when they are hit by a red car. A woman who is quite clearly an older Cataleya stumbles out, seemingly drunk. The two police officers arrest her. They find no identification in her purse other than a library card, with the name of "Valerie Phillips". The woman says she has to throw up, and so the police officers decide to throw her in a cell to sleep off her intoxication. Later that night, Genarro Rizzo, a big time gangster, is transferred to the same jail by the FBI.
That night, the guards leave Cataleya's section of the jail; it is then revealed that she was pretending to be drunk and asleep to gain access to the jail. She gets up and changes into a black bodysuit, removing the wig she had on. She uses the hairpin from inside her wig to unlock her cell door, then grabs a spoon and cup to stall the ventilation system so she can crawl through the air vents to get to Rizzo's cell block. Cataleya then knocks out the guard of Rizzo's block, uses him to gain access to Rizzo's cell, and takes his gun. She approaches Rizzo, wakes him, shoots and kills and draws an orchid on his chest.
The police, hearing the gunshots, quickly pull the alarm and start searching for Rizzo's killer. When they enter Rizzo's cell block, the guard Cataleya has knocked out is standing there with the gun she used to kill Rizzo in his hand. Meanwhile, Cataleya makes her way back to her cell by going inside the air vent with a detour outside over the edge of the roof. She gets back inside her cell, redresses, and pretends to be asleep when the guards check on her. The next day, police fingerprint Cataleya - still posing as "Valerie Philips" - with a court date for the DUI and release her just as the FBI's SWAT team is locking down the facility. As Cataleya walks away, she peels off a fake skin that she used to leave the fingerprint and throws it on the pavement.
Shortly thereafter, FBI Agent James Ross holds an informational meeting with other FBI agents in his office, revealing that there have been 22 murders in the last 4 years with the same signature: a large cattleya drawn on the victim's body. Agent Ross concludes that the tag killer is trying to send a message to someone, so he decides to release the information to the public. A CIA Agent,
After further assassinations, the FBI decides to release the information regarding Cataleya's calling card which is revealed to the public. It is then revealed that Don Luis has been relocated to the New Orleans by making a deal with the CIA. The CIA Agent assigned to him tells him to figure out who the signature killer is, or Don Luis will be cut off from support. After he leaves, however, Don Luis reveals that he knows exactly who it is, and instructs Marco to "fix it."
Cataleya meets with her uncle Emilio; she is a hitwoman who takes special assignments from him. During their meeting, though, he shows her the newspaper article about the tag killer, says he knows it is her, and orders her to stop.
Cataleya, wrought with grief breaks into an FBI agent's home and tries to explain her situation to him. She gets the drop on him and makes him sit in a chair with an presumably explosive on the underside of the chair. He looks down to verify. He asks her what caused her to kill 23 people, and she explains her history of trauma and death, including her most recent loss. He informs her that Don Luis met her at the proverbial challenge. She then picks up a picture from the agents bookshelf and informs him if he does not cooperate, he will attend a funeral every week. After threatening to kill his family if he does not cooperate, she gets the address of Don Luis from a CIA agent revealed earlier to know where Don Luis has been relocated into.
Cataleya loads an armored van with guns and her two dogs and drives to Don Luis's estate for vengeance.
After the gunfight, Cataleya confronts Marcos in the bathroom. They engage in hand-to-hand combat where Cataleya uses plastic toothbrushes as stabbing weapons. A defeated and wounded Marcos picks up his pistol and points it to Cataleya who disassembles the gun and stabs Marcos with the gun barrel, killing him. She picks up Marcos's cellphone and leaves.
Don Luis, meanwhile, sneaks away from a hiding spot and gets in a large black van. He drives away when he receives a call from Marcos. Answering the call, he finds out Cataleya has killed Marcos. He threatens Cataleya and taunts that he is where she cannot find him, but he will regroup and find her. Cataleya calmly responds he is exactly where she wants him to be. It is revealed that Cataleya's two dogs are in the back of the van, and maul Don Luis to death when Cataleya commands the dogs to "eat".
Her artist boyfriend is held for questioning, when he receives a phone call from Cataleya. They say their goodbyes and Cataleya is seen at a gas station somewhere, getting on a bus. She then starts to live a new life without mistakes.
