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.

A poetic essay that talks about the intense emotions of the residents in a metropolis.

São Paulo, 1984. Agostinho, an old and tired Physics professor, is married to Januária, a retired school principal. In his classes, he begins to feel attracted to one of his students, Márcia, an HIV positive teenager. Quickly, the attraction of the two turns into an impossible love.