In November 1958, the American teenager Katey Miller moves with her parents
and her younger sister to Havana. Her father is an executive of Ford
expatriated to Cuba, and Katey is an excellent high school senior student
that misses her friends. The family is lodged in a fancy hotel, where Katey
accidentally meets the local teenage waiter Javier Suarez. Later she sees
Javier dancing in a public square and they become friends, but he is fired
from the hotel because her acquaintances have seen them together. Katey
invites Javier to participate of a Latin Ballroom Contest in the local
Palace club to help him to raise some money, and she secretly meets him in
the La Rosa Negra nightclub for rehearsals. Later they fall in love for
each other in times of revolution.
In November 1958, prim and proper Katey Miller, a high school senior,
learns that she and her parents, Bert and Jeannie Miller, and her younger
sister Susie Miller are moving immediately to Havana where Bert, a Ford
executive, has been transferred. This move does not sit well with Katey,
who wanted to finish her high schooling in her existing school, where she
is a star student (mostly in literature), before she plans to head to
Radcliffe following graduation. According to Susie, Katey does not know how
to have fun, and the other kids in her Havana social circle, offspring of
Ford executives who all live at the posh Hotel Oceana, indeed have a
different mentality than her. But that doesn't stop James Phelps, the son
of Bert's boss, from being attracted to Katey. It isn't until she sees some
impromptu street dancing by the locals and the emotional rawness of it that
Katey begins to enjoy her life in Havana, especially with Javier Súarez,
one of those dancers and a waiter at the hotel. Javier becomes her
unofficial guide to Havana life, unofficial in that a relationship would be
forbidden between them due to their social class differences. Intrigued
with the dancing, Katey suggests that she and Javier enter a local Cuban
dance contest at the upscale Palace Hotel. Having learned formal ballroom
dancing from her parents, who are former competitive dancers, Katey
believes that a mixture of her formal ballroom dancing and Javier's street
based dancing is a winning combination. It isn't until Katey has a chat
with the dance instructor at the hotel that she begins to learn really how
to mesh the two together. But Katey and Javier have other obstacles to
overcome, including what would happen if Bert and Jeannie found out about
their relationship and the scandal that that would cause and the resulting
affect on Bert's job. Their stay in Havana is set against the backdrop of
the Castro led revolution against the ruling Batista government, whose
regime solely supports the wealthy. Javier's father was killed by the
Batista government, and as such Javier's older brother Carlos Súarez works
within the revolutionary forces, while Javier wants only what is best for
his family.
An American girl (Garai) and her parents arrive in Cuba right before the
Revolution breaks out. She meets a local boy (Luna) who instantly notices
her dancing abilities and romances her. But as Castro's forces are forcing
Americans to leave the country, will she stay or will she go?
On the eve of Cuba's revolution, a young American woman discovers a passion
for dance and for her sultry Cuban partner, Javier. As the two prepare to
take their place in a prestigious national dance competition, their bodies
align in a sensual harmony that mirrors the growing bond between them. They
dominate the dance floor with a sizzling style and rhythm all their own.