Raphael finds a bag in the trash containing a wallet, key, map, and photos of a young girl.

Police arrive at the Behala camp offering a large reward to anyone who finds and returns the missing bag.

Gardo and Raphael hide the bag with Rat, a boy who lives in a hole beneath the trash.

Rat reveals that the key opens a locker at Central Station and offers to take the boys there.

The boys open locker 101 at Central Station and find a letter addressed to a prisoner at Colva Prison.

Police arrest Raphael, torture him at the station, but release him after he refuses to reveal the bag.

After his release, Raphael walks the streets and feels newly strengthened by the memory of José Angelico.

Gardo tricks a social worker named Olivia into accompanying him to visit Gabriel Olondriz at Colva Prison.

Gardo and Olivia meet the dying Gabriel Olondriz, who reveals Senator Zapanta stole thirty million dollars in international aid.

Olondriz explains that José Angelico stole six million dollars back from Zapanta and hid it using a Bible-based code.

Marco betrays Gardo during the Bible exchange at the tea-house, but Gardo fights free and escapes with the Bible.

The boys decode the Bible code and determine that the stolen money is hidden somewhere in a graveyard.

The boys find Pia Dante alive in the graveyard, sitting on a grave and waiting for her father.

The boys break open a tomb on Day of the Dead and find six million dollars hidden inside a coffin.

The boys scatter the stolen money over the Behala dumpsite and flee with Pia Dante to the island of Sampalo.

Three dumpsite boys named Raphael, Gardo, and Rat find a mysterious bag in the trash that puts them on a collision course with corrupt police. After hiding the bag's contents and opening a train station locker, they uncover a letter and coded numbers connecting to a prisoner named Gabriel Olondriz, who reveals that a man named José Angelico stole six million dollars from the corrupt Senator Zapanta. Police arrest and torture Raphael, but he refuses to give anything up, and the boys press on to decode a Bible-based cipher that points them toward a graveyard. A violent betrayal by a prison guard forces Gardo to fight his way free, but the boys emerge with the Bible and the decoded location of the hidden money. They break open a tomb on Day of the Dead, recover the six million dollars, and scatter it over the Behala dumpsite before escaping with a girl named Pia Dante to a new life on a distant island.

The essential events of the boys' dangerous quest for justice.

Raphael splits the 1,100 pesos found in the wallet with Gardo before hiding the rest of the bag's contents.

Raphael's aunt alerts visiting police that Raphael found something, making both boys suspects in the search for the bag.

Police halt the dumpsite's trash trucks and pay all workers 100 pesos each to clear the area during their search.

Rat refuses to reveal what the key is used for until Raphael pays him 100 pesos.

The boys use Father Juilliard's computer at the Mission School to research José Angelico and Gabriel Olondriz online.

Raphael learns from newspaper research that José Angelico was killed while being questioned by police at the station.

Senator Zapanta's maid Grace tries to find José's daughter Pia Dante at her boarding house but learns she has vanished.

Olivia buys Gardo clean, presentable clothes at a store before accompanying him to Colva Prison.

Olivia pays a large bribe to the prison welfare officer to gain access to the sick Gabriel Olondriz.

Olivia is horrified to see young children locked in tiny cages inside Colva Prison.

Gabriel Olondriz dies the morning after Gardo and Olivia's visit, with the Bible still held by Marco.

Police take Olivia to the station for questioning, but the British Embassy secures her release later that day.

Rat and Raphael sneak over the fence into Senator Zapanta's guarded estate and encounter a friendly gardener.

The gardener reveals that José smuggled the money out of Zapanta's house hidden inside an old refrigerator.

The boys and Pia Dante board a boat and spend nine hours traveling to the island of Sampalo.

While the main plot unfolds through the boys' actions, many surrounding events shape the danger they face and the world they inhabit. The police search escalates quickly, halting the dumpsite and putting Raphael's family under suspicion, while a maid named Grace separately discovers that José Angelico's daughter Pia has vanished. A social worker named Olivia is drawn into the prison visit, where she witnesses horrifying conditions including children locked in cages, before being taken in for police questioning herself and eventually fleeing the country. Meanwhile, Rat and Raphael sneak into Zapanta's guarded estate, where a gardener privately reveals the ingenious method José used to smuggle the money out. The story closes with Gabriel Olondriz dying the morning after his only visit from the boys, and Pia and the boys completing a long boat journey together to reach the island paradise of Sampalo.

The supporting moments and outside perspectives that fill out the full story.

Raphael decides not to turn in the bag when police offer a reward, sensing it holds greater importance.

Rat agrees to hide the bag for the boys despite calling them crazy for not claiming the police reward.

The boys open the envelope found in the station locker and discover a letter paired with a coded slip of numbers.

Father Juilliard reveals that he is the adult compiling all of the characters' separate accounts into one narrative.

After being released by police, Raphael addresses a street statue aloud and declares that he did not give in.

Rat reveals to Raphael that he is not from Behala and has been secretly saving to return to his island home.

Guard Marco ends the prison visit but privately offers to deliver Gabriel's Bible to Behala for 20,000 pesos.

The boys spot police cars approaching Rat's home and flee, taking only Rat's hidden savings with them.

Rat sneaks into Father Juilliard's school and steals 23,000 pesos from the safe, leaving a drawing of himself behind.

Gardo plots Gabriel Olondriz's prisoner number as map coordinates and finds they point directly to a graveyard.

A gravestone carver named Frederico inscribes the words 'seeds to harvest, my child' on a grave commissioned by José Angelico.

The boys realize the 'brightest light' clue in José's code refers to thousands of candles in the poor section of the cemetery.

Gardo finds the grave of Maria Angelico and discovers a stone directly above it inscribed with the name Pia Dante.

Rat cries for the first time when he gently lays the malnourished Pia Dante down to sleep.

Rat declares he will now go by Jun-Jun as the boys narrate the beginning of their new lives as fishermen.

Every major shift in the story of Trash hinges on a moment of courage, deception, or revelation that no one could easily take back. Raphael's snap decision not to hand over the bag, and Rat's willingness to hide it despite calling the boys crazy, set the entire adventure in motion. Raphael survives brutal police torture and emerges transformed, while Rat's private revelation about saving to return to Sampalo plants the seed for the boys' eventual escape plan. The dangerous Bible exchange ends in betrayal and violence, but the boys regroup and crack the code together, ultimately finding not just the money but a girl everyone believed was dead. Their final act of scattering the money over the dumpsite is both an act of justice and a farewell, and Rat's quiet announcement that he will now go by his real name marks the moment all three boys truly leave their old lives behind.