In a hospital bed, Eduardo, a married man, remembers his involvement with the young Anita, until their downfall.

The ups and downs in the lives of immigrants from post-war Europe, arriving in Brazil in search of a better future.

Two friends grow together in the same neighborhood but, as adults, take different paths in life. One becomes an honest worker, and the other gets strayed. But the good guy's sister has an affair with her brother's friend, and is much abused by him. Her brother wants revenge. But when he sees him in danger, some time later, he must decide which is the stronger feeling: the former friendship, or his wish for revenge.

Swindler in jail devises a scheme to blackmail the family of recently deceased people, threatening to tell supposedly incriminating facts about their dead relatives' lives.

Camillo Mastrocinque was one of many foreigners who came to Brazil in the 1950s to make films. The director of melodramas during the Italian fascist era directed this film, Areião (Inca Film, 1952), which could have spared Maria Della Costa. The film was renamed La priggione di sabbia to compete at the Venice Film Festival, but was rejected.