Mama Saleng is a religious fanatic who owns a boarding house and a canteen. As a child, Saleng was accused, along with her grandmother, of being an "Aswang". Her thirst for human flesh was quenched during the Martial Law years when she met Jessie Beltran, an undercover agent tasked with the brutal extermination of activists on Panay Island. Mama Saleng came to enjoy killing, becoming like the "Aswang" she was accussed of being. She continues to indulge her monstrous appetites among her hapless lodgers.