Four friends are tired of surviving by pulling small scams and running from the police. After a swindle that goes wrong, the quartet formed by Zoinhu, Linguinha, Mãodelo and Alãodelom comes across a robbery that could take them off the streets.

Helen lives in a cortiço with her grandmother, Mrs. Graça, who supports the family with informal jobs, such as selling skewers. Still very naive, her biggest concern is buying her grandmother a birthday present: a makeup kit. The girl is going to bend over backwards to get the money and her search will reveal the daily life of those living in tenements, outlining a collective story from the network of relations that the girl establishes.

After failing to be admitted into the OSESP Orchestra, a talented violinist is forced to give music classes to teenagers in a public school. He soon finds his world transformed by the power of music and friendships formed with his pupils.

In the backlands of Goiás, Brazil, brutish men who cannot deal with their weaknesses are constantly abandoned by the women they love. Sad and bitter, these men turn violently against each other.

As São Paulo erupts in an unprecedented wave of violence, a lawyer with underworld ties must strike a deal with the police to rescue her kidnapped niece.