In early 18th century Peru an old Inca rope bridge collapses, plunging five travelers to their deaths in the Andean chasm below. Brother Juniper, who was within minutes of being on the bridge himself, becomes obsessed with discovering how five people of differing class and circumstances came to be on the bridge at that moment. The Catholic friar wants to know if it was mere existential happenstance or part of God's cosmic plan. After researching the lives of the victims for five years and publishing his findings in a book, he is accused of heresy by the worldly Archbishop of Lima and is put on trial for his life by the Inquisition.

In 1860, a French adventurer established a kingdom in an independent region of southern Chile, uniting the native Mapuche. The Chilean army's response was devastating. At least, that's one version of this true story. Or, was he a French spy? Banished? Died but somehow returned? In Rey, the tension between history and memory materialise in the degradation of image and sound. The film is an odyssey through a land of fantasies and dreams.