Maria Papoila, a shepherdess from Beira working in Lisbon, one day meets a rich young man, Eduardo, whom she assumes to be of her own social standing due to his uniform as a private soldier. Some time later, arrested as a suspect in a major robbery, Eduardo is abandoned by his selfish fiancée, Margarida, and it is the "soup girl" who, although despised in her dream and sacrificing her honor, appears in court as Eduardo's lover, and he is acquitted. Without asking for anything in return, Maria Papoila returns to her village.

The story of how the conflicting relationship of Eduardo and vaudeville actress Isabel is affected by the passion he feels for their neighbor, Mariana, a young overprotected, and the unexpected visit of his uncle Plácido, a moral teacher.

The fatalism caught up and the amorous tragedy between Teresa de Albuquerque and Simão Botelho, who survives the intolerant litigation of her noble families.

While rehearsing the annual play, a clerk tries to regain the attention of his beloved, in a comedy of equivoques.

João, a music teacher, tells his students the story of how twenty years earlier he fell in love with Anustchka, a circus performer, whom he left everything for.

Adaptation of the homonymous novel by Júlio Dantas. Trying to highlight the romantic tone, the ruralism of the picturesque situations and environments, the spirit and characters of 1863 are revived: the characteristic loves of Margarida and Clara, the distinguished morals of Pedro and Daniel, the bonhomie of João Semana, finally the disagreements , common sense, tenderness, rituals and landscape involvement of Minho.

Caleidoscope of documentary-like scenes and re-enacted episodes of a day in the life of a large port town – Lisbon, from the old district around Saint George's Castle down to the docks and the 'Sagres' on the Tagus river, to the new commercial districts.