Co-directed by openly gay couple Wash Westmoreland and Richard Glatzner, Quinceañera immerses us in the Latino milieu of Echo Park, Los Angeles, and the struggles of Magdalena (Emily Rios) and her cousin Carlos (Jesse Garcia), a queer boy with more swagger and menace than Grace Jones. Magdalena is a teenager whose 15th birthday, and thus her traditional Spanish coming-out party (a quinceañera) is fast approaching. Carlos is the family outcast who lives with Great-Uncle Tomas (Chalo Gonzalez).

The film opens on cousin Eileen's (Alicia Sixtos) Quinceañera, with all its ceremony and jubilation, giddiness and gossip and generations converging for the grand occasion. Eileen's family is a bit more wealthy and extravagant than Magdalena's, which hints that Magdalena's coming-out party won't be quite as glitzy. Magdalena wants an impressive, posh event for her friends, but her father is reluctant to embrace material values.

At the party we hear Magdalena's mother and aunt working the room, greeting every guest individually and catching up. Carlos crashes the party, bearing a rose he swiped from a flower cart, and is summarily bounced from the proceedings. He is undeniably the persona non grata (“Don't ruin your sister's big night,” he is told), though at this point we're not sure why.

He is intensely macho and a badass: stealing, lying, escaping to the solace of marijuana. Tio Tomas, his great-uncle, gently advises him to return home, where they'll talk later.

Magdalena's boyfriend, Herman (J.R. Cruz), is slow-dancing and joshing with her on the dance floor. Magdalena and Herman spend lots of time in each other's company, kissing and cuddling but not much more, which is why it comes as such a shock when she learns she is pregnant. She knows this is incomprehensible, but refuses to lie, even when her conservative father kicks her out of the house. Like the mother of Christ, she is a victim of rumor and speculation and the recipient of (nearly) miraculous conception. After she discovers that her boyfriend has deserted her, she moves in with Tio Tomas.

Carlos, black sheep of the family and unapologetically queer, will eventually become part of Magdalena's improvised nuclear family. Like the criminals in Burnt Money, alienation might be the means to his queer attraction or, perhaps, the expression. His sexual orientation is common knowledge in his family, and he stands tall despite their disapproval. He works at a car wash and sports the tattoos and buzz cut of a million fierce teenage boys, withdrawn and hostile.