The Queen of the Cicadas

In 1952, a Mexican woman named Milagros is harassed by a man who wishes to marry her. The man dies under mysterious circumstances. In order to salvage her family’s reputation, Milagros migrates to Texas to become a farm worker. Milagros is sexually harassed by the farm owner’s nephew Billy, but she rejects his advances. Milagros decides to leave the farm.

Before she can leave, Milagros is attacked by Billy’s jealous wife Tonya. Tonya ties Milagros to a tree, dumps fire ants over her, and stuffs cicadas into her mouth. Milagros dies as a result of the insect bites.

As Milagros dies, her cries for vengeance are heard by the goddess Mictecacihuatl. Mictecacihuatl kills Tonya’s friends, who did not interfere as Tonya tortured Milagros. Each of the guilty women is killed in a brutal manner involving cicadas or other insects. Later, the goddess causes a car accident due to a swarm of cicadas. This collision kills Billy and breaks Tonya’s spine, leaving her with locked-in syndrome.

The farm where Milagros died becomes barren and becomes the site of a new urban legend. Local teenagers state calling on La Reina de las Chicharras (“the queen of the cicadas”) will cause the ghost of Milagros to appear.

Decades later, in the year 2019, Belinda Montoya attends the wedding of a childhood friend. Belinda is a lawyer who has overcome substantial childhood adversity at the cost of a strained relationship with her teenage son as well as a burgeoning alcohol problem. The wedding venue is located at the site where Milagros was murdered.

Belinda befriends Hector, the owner of the venue. They meet Pastor Rich, the man who found Milagros’s body and later officiated her funeral. Rich provides them with old documents, allowing them to confirm Milagros’s surname and last known address. Belinda and Hector decide to bring news of Milagros to her surviving family members.

Hector and Belinda journey to Milagros’s home town, where they meet her grandnephew Benny and eventually her surviving twin sister, Concepción. The Santos family knew that Milagros had disappeared, but Belinda informs them of the circumstances behind Milagros’s murder. Concepción has been in a catatonic state since 1952. After hearing about her sister’s murder, she speaks for the first time in decades. Concepción kills her nurse and then herself.

Belinda and Hector return to Texas, where they erect a plaque in memory of Milagros. A camera crew interviews Hector about the supposedly haunted house; one member of the crew is killed by Mictecacihuatl. Videos of the death, and subsequent appearances by the goddess, go viral. The goddess begins appearing to many people who call upon her, telling people when and how they will die. La Reina de las Chicharras gains international notoriety and becomes a new religious movement.

Belinda has a vision of Mictecacihuatl giving birth to Milagros. Milagros also begins appearing in people’s visions. Milagros escorts Pastor Rich to the afterlife. His church sits abandoned and is eventually purchased by Ari, an investor who wants to dedicate a cathedral to the new religion. Hector and Benny begin a romantic relationship. Belinda agrees to be their surrogate. She simultaneously begins a relationship with Ari. While she and Ari have sex, Mictecacihuatl appears with them. Belinda is shocked to discover that she has become pregnant with twins; Hector and Ari are the fathers.

Belinda experiences a uterine rupture and undergoes and emergency cesarean section. She gives birth to healthy baby girls. Mictecacihuatl escorts Belinda to the afterlife, promising her a place in the new religious movement.