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Magdalena, a river that courses through the heart of Columbia, connects a violent past with the countrys uncertain present. British writer Michael Jacobs struggles to reconcile his love for the land and its people with the dangers that both still present. Determined to eliminate modern conveniences from his journey, he begins traversing the river by tugboat. He makes an exception for a cell phone that maintains a sporadic signal at best, in efforts to keep in touch with his mother suffering from deteriorating health. Jacobs cannot help but notice the irony of his mothers dementia and his travels through Colombian townships with the worlds highest incidence of early-onset Alzheimers.While navigating the mysterious river and unfamiliar territoryboth emotionally and geographicallyJacobs comes across Gabriel Garcia Mrquez, whose own faltering memory shows a growing obsession with the Magdalena River of his youth.