It is 1929 in the town of Tampa, Florida. In the run-down cigar factory, owned and operated by Cuban exiles, the cigars are still rolled by hand and 'lectors' are employed to read to the workforce while they roll. The arrival of a handsome new lector straight off the boat from Cuba is a cause for celebration - at least by the daughters of the owner. But when he begins to read aloud from his favourite novel, Anna Karenina, he unwittingly becomes a catalyst in the lives of his avid listeners, for whom Tolstoy, the tropical heat and the American dream prove a volatile combination...