It's a summer weekend in a country house near Sintra, in Portugal. Fourteen-year-old Nicolau is spending a couple of days with his older brother Simão and his friends, all of them in their late twenties. Everyone is drawn to the beautiful and quiet Maria do Mar, but Nicolau will see his life the most deeply shaken by her. Between homework and tree-climbing, stories about a deceased philandering grandfather and the origins of the tortellini's shape, a friend in a costume nursing a broken heart and seduction games, Nicolau observes this group of young adults.

A zoetrope is a pre-film animation device. It consists of a cylinder with slits cut vertically in the sides. On the inner surface of the cylinder is a band with images from a set of sequenced pictures. By turning it, the user sees a rapid succession of images, producing the illusion of motion.

Three friends are at the beach. It is the last day of summer the moon is rising. One of them decides to hold his breath until the moon appears completely in the horizon.

António wakes up to find an exact replica of himself floating inanimate in the pool. Without explanation, he and his family try to deal with the confusion, mistrust and a sense of mourning that settles in between them. Between absurdity and conflict, life goes on, undisturbed, as if not much had changed.