Foul-mouthed seventy year-old 'pagpag' (garbage food) vendor Perla seeks a better life for her orphaned granddaughter (and financial relief for herself) by putting the latter up for adoption. After a number of failed attempts, she decides to prepare Rose with a new “audition number” to win over the new adoptive gay parents from abroad.

Inspired by a 2011 case about a 10-year old child exploited and abused in a Filipino noon-time game show, Pagpag is a meditation on the nature of contemporary family--the complicated dynamics of love, sacrifice, and exploitation in a domestic setting-- and the soul-crushing effects of media and poverty in Philippine society.