While in the hospital, after being run over, Alaíde thinks about her life, specially after the moment she'd found the diary of Madame Clessy, in the house where her family had moved in, which was a former bordello.

1943, World War II. The northeastern coast of Brazil is an strategic region for the Allies. Giancarlo, an Italian immigrant married to a Brazilian woman, lives nearby the Parnamirin Field, the largest military base built by the USA outside of their territory. In this new base, Brazilian recruits who speak English suddenly find themselves reaching privileged positions.

At a bar, a lonely mantells the story of the incredible romance he has just lived to three strangers.

Diogo is a cartographer and artist who is encharged to set the new frontiers of Portuguese Colonies in South America. When he reaches the center of the continent, finds apparently nothing but wilderness and ‘uncivilized’ natives with strange ways of living. But Captain Pedro, the rude scout who guides him through the jungle, involves Diogo in an involuntary act of violence which will tie him in an unusual way to that far away country. At the same time, the Portuguese colonists are trying to make peace with Guaicuru Indians (one of the few natives with horse-riding abilities). But peace doesn’t ever have a low price.

A light-hearted and high-spirited story, full of spice, sensuality and romance, Viva Zapato tells the tale of Dolores, a beautiful Cuban dancer who decides to leave her failing marriage and open a restaurant by the beach with her aunt from Brazil. When her aunt sends her a pair of shoes instead of the money to start up the restaurant, she angrily sells the useless gift for spare change. Her dream fades away - until she discovers that the money was hidden in the heel. The zany search for the shoes begins, as she follows the footsteps through the lively streets of Havana, running into the quirky, colorful characters that bring Viva Zapato and Dolores' dream.

In Copacabana, lesbian photographer Elvis is hired to deliver pizzas in the night shift on her motorcycle. Her first assignment is a delivery to the transgender hairdresser Lady Madonna, whom she falls in love with.

With death getting near, a retired officer remembers the most important passages in his life and his participation in historical events in Brazil, such as the Lieutenants' Movement, and the 1964 coup.

The story of Domitila de Castro Canto e Melo, the Marquise of Santos, the most famous of the mistresses of Dom Pedro I, Emperor of Brazil.