Maos Sangrentas translates to Bloody Hands in English, and that's just what this gruesome Brazilian melodrama delivers. The story begins when a gang of dangerous convicts escape from a penal colony. With the police in hot pursuit, the escapees cut a gory swath through the countryside. As his comrades are killed off one by one, the leader of the group descends into gibbering madness. In contrast to this, a subplot develops involving the least dangerous of the escapees, who murdered his wife in a peak of self-righteous rage and is now seriously in doubt about the wisdom of his deed. Principal scenes reworked in 1962 to make the film The Violent and the Damned (q.v.).

Reg owns the store "Tem Tudo... E Muito Mais" (Has Everything... And Much More). To satisfy his customers, he is forced to perform the most strange functions.

An elderly head of the family, unlike his family—wife, daughters, future son-in-law, and servants—horrifies Carnaval, forming a humorous contrast. But, in need of money, he finds himself forced to accept the demands of an old Luzitano, who will only lend him money if he joins his group and joins the revelry.

Roberto is blind and tunes pianos, isolated from the world and hurt by having abandoned his promising career as a pianist due to the accident that took his sight. One day, Roberto meets Suzana, the great love of his life, and his old passion returns with full force. But there's a problem: Suzana's engagement could put everything to ruin, separating the passionate couple once again.

A wealthy sugar mill owner, widowed and living with his only son, suffers from profound melancholy. To alleviate his suffering, he seeks entertainment in the form of any jerk willing to lend a hand. Among the many candidates his secretary presents to fill the "position", a certain "Penguin", who along with his sister "Picolé" lives on the favela hill under the protection of a kind Portuguese shopkeeper, completely pleases the "sovereign" of sugar. With "Penguin"'s entry into the court as the sugar king's "fool", great transformations take place in the home of the wealthy misanthrope.