The summer holidays take Inês to the house where she grew up. Recovering from a recent family mourning, we follow her return to the city she lives in. A heat wave follows her night walks.

In the mid-20th century, a troubled relationship between Germana, a young writer, and Quina, her aunt who lives in the northern Portuguese countryside. Feelings of jealousy, admiration and the complex magnetism between these two strong women arise.

In Victorian London lives a man of adventurous spirit and great wit, Charles Augustus Howell, art agent, art dealer, conspirator and master of blackmail.