In Pau Brasil, a small, lost village in the heart of Brazil, the families of Joaquim and Nives live side by side. Despite living in the same perverse structure of social oppression, they deal with life in radically different ways.

At the end of the 19th century, a poor family comes to the rural Canudos, a community led by Antônio Conselheiro, seen by many as a holy prophet. Their ways bother the powerful people of the region, and the newly founded Republic sends their army to destroy the settlement, which culminates in one of the bloodiest wars in the history of Brazil.