The film follows Manuel Maria du Bocage, 18th-century poet, as he travels through the world from orgy to orgy and from excess to excess.

Cruel and brave Brazilian outlaw called Corisco, living in the backcountry in the Northeast, an arid region, rapes 12-year-old Dadá, who becomes his woman, following him and his gang. Although they were supposed to fight against social injustice, they terrorized the small villages along their way.

American couple move to the State of Ceará, Brazil, in the 1930s. The husband is looking for oil. His beautiful wife, Donna, soon falls in love with a rude but charming fisherman. The forbidden romance may destroy her marriage and upset the morals of the small village where they live.

Sebastian, a novice in a post-apocalyptic Brazilian monastery, prepares to be ordained while struggling with intense doubts. Before priesthood, he must confess his greatest secrets: his rape as a child and the passion he has for another monk. He turns to penance and martyrdom to relieve his guilt.

Aroeiras is a fictional city in the northeastern interior of Brazil where Genésio lives. Old, widowed, retired and childless, he fills his loneliness drinking and dreaming of the nostalgic heroism of cangaceiros (northeastern outlaws) and the love of Rosália. His friend Baltazar, a peasant leader, does not believe in myths of the past. He believes that organized political struggle is the only possible way to change things and he is looking for new ways to fight the powerful.