"Portraits and excerpts from Brazilian films from all times. Actors, directors and images that affirm cinema."

In Northeastern Brazil, twelve-year-old Maria is sold to have a better life as a housemaid. However, Maria is resold and sent to a brothel in the Amazon gold fields and put to work by the despicable Saraiva.

Three desperate stories about working life in São Paulo.

Caio is 40 years old and lives in the Rio de Janeiro's countryside, where he owns a scrap-metal yard. On Christmas' Eve, he goes to the capital to visit his family and friends. Finally he will be able to meet a man he has not seen for a long time: himself.

Carlos is a young man from the São Paulo middle class who works for a big company during a time when foreign automobile industries were settling in Brazil. Shortly after, he accepts a job at a factory that makes automobile parts, where he becomes manager. To a certain extent, he is a family man who works hard, earns well and lives unsatisfied. Without any prospects in his life to change the condition he rejects, his last resort is escaping.

A rich man encounters a prostitute and gets confused about the nature of his feelings for her. He can't decide between attraction and repulsion.

Fleeing from the orphanage where he was living, young Valdo immediately entered the life of the crime, establishing himself as a dangerous adult criminal. However, his petty thefts do not satisfy him and he longs for bigger things and when he becomes a lover of Beth, the young criminal realizes that he can enrich himself very and very fast.

In Minas Gerais, the powerful "colonel" Alexandrão gets married with the young and virgin Cristina and promotes a huge wedding party in his farm. He eats and drinks a lot along the day, but in his "first night" with the bride, he dies before consummating his marriage. The marital status of Cristina becomes very unusual, being a virgin widow. Her doctor advises her to travel to Rio de Janeiro to rest, and she moves with her aunt to an inherited apartment in Leme. Once in Rio de Janeiro, the rascal Constantino, who is aware of her wealth, courts her and borrows money, clothes and a Mercedes Benz from his friends, pretending he is businessman man. His friends release "stocks" in a parallel stock market, based and supported in the expectation of the possible marriage of Constantino with Cristina. However, the ghost of Coronel Alexandrão appears for her whenever she intends to have sex with Constantino.

Hit man does his part in a deal, but doesn't get the money he was promised. For the treason, he decides to eliminate them all.