Luisa (25 and addicted to 'chiva', heroin) retires to a hotel by the sea near Veracruz on the Gulf of Mexico. During her stay, for more than a week, she meets the old, mysterious, heavy-duty cannabis user Salomon, in whom she thinks she recognises a fellow soul. A bond develops between the two of them. ARTIFICIAL PARADISES, named after an anthology by the French poet Baudelaire from 1860, is a melodrama imbued with drugs and drink. Not much is explained: dialogues are scarce (although there is a bit of singing).