The saga of Severino, a poor guy living in the back country of Northeast Brazil, leaving for the big city of Recife, in search of a better life.

In the drought areas of Northeastern of Brazil, groups of migrants move trying to find better place to live, at least with water. Some of them go to Recife, to get a vessel to Santos expecting to have a better life in the Southern. In the poor area of Recife, an old washerwoman launders clothes to survive and support her family. Her husband Zé Luis, a former sailor, is crazy due to a hit of the boom of a mast on his head. Her older son Raimundo works in a grocery and selling mangoes on the street, trying to save money to move to the Southeastern with his girl-friend Aurora. Her daughter wants to be a prostitute to have a better quality of life. Her younger son is seriously sick.

After their relative and associate runs way, the Naves brothers inform the police of the incident, who end up arresting them under the accusation of murdering the missing person. The brothers are tortured in order to confess a crime they did not commit while their wives are raped.

An anthology divided in three segments, helmed by three of the most important Brazilian directors of the 20th century. A mother becomes involved with black magic and offers a virgin woman to the Devil in exchange for curing the illness of her only son. A poor laborer is the only man in the village with courage to face a group of guerrilheiros ("guerrilla ghosts") that haunt the minds of the locals. A young man is afflicted by fear of reptiles and spiders and the fear of being buried alive. When he undergoes a shocking event, he becomes unresponsive and is mistakenly buried, only to revive in the coffin after burial.

After being evicted, a family in serious financial difficulties moves into a tenement next to a cemetery. As soon as they settle in, they meet the neighboring couple who, upon learning of the financial problems of the newcomers, offer them a pact to be made through a magical amulet: the monkey paw.

Jorge de Oliveira is an Afro-Brazilian poet who works in a publicity agency in São Paulo. Torn between his rich white lovers and his black family and friends, Jorge's situation serves as a springboard to a discussion about racial issues in Brazil.