A church (not officially recognized by residing Christian authorities) is formed around the patron saint Santa Sangre, a little girl who was brutally gang-raped after rapists cut off her arms for resisting the rape, then leaving her to die. Her story is depicted by a series of large, amateurish paintings hung around the church, in the absence of stained glass. The church has a pool of diluted red paint in the center to represent the blood she died in on the spot the church was built. The father of the main character overpowers and hypnotizes the mother, who is initially threatening him with a knife. The father says "My little child" and the mother repeatedly pleads "No" and "Don't do that" before falling fully under the spell. Clowns and musicians do nothing but look on and play music as this happens, following them until another clown disperses the crowd and says to "leave them alone." This is followed by a poorly hidden act of public rape (portrayed as loud passionate sex), which is viewed by the main character, a child at this part of the movie. This film deals heavily with gender identity and how it is affected by child abuse. During a funeral procession, the biologically male child main character is given a dress-like gown to wear by his mother (the leader of a cult). During the procession, he cries while leaning on his father, who tells him to "stop crying like a little girl" and telling him that "I'll give you a charm that'll make you a man." After the procession, the father takes him to a room alone, cuts the gown off of him, ties him to a chair, and brutally tattoos a hawk across his entire chest with a knife. At the end, he shows his son to a mirror and affirms "now you're a man, just like me." This traumatic event is one of several that plague the main character as an adult, especially as he struggles with his identity. The friend of the main character, a little girl unsupervised by her guardian, witnesses the main character's father walk outside completely naked, covering his bloodied crotch (dissolving from an acid attack). The father walks directly in front of the little girl as he rounds the corner of a building (less than two feet away from her). He then commits suicide in full view of his son, another minor. A pimp drugs four people with down syndrome (possibly implied to be minors) and helps them purchase a prostitute. The guardian of the deaf-mute girl (possibly still a minor even after a time skip) pimps her to a soldier with gigantism while she is sleeping. He walks into her room and picks her up in his arms. She wakes up, panics, resists, and succeeds in escaping before he can go through with it. She spends the rest of the night sleeping outside on top of a fire truck, but not before also being touched and grabbed inappropriately by a man who terrorizes her with his fake ear. A burlesque show is performed titled "Jane the Virgin" in which the dancer dresses as a schoolgirl in a children's classroom and strips for an audience full of excited men, who are also allowed to grope her and strip her during the show. A man also dances from the door of the classroom, singing a love song. The killer lures to his home and kills a trans woman athlete. It is not explicitly because she is trans, but the scene is horrific either way.