In a large house in Salvador lives a family: Hercules, Julia, two of the couple's nephews, Hercules' father-in-law, and two maids. Hercules is a farmer who is in a professional and marital crisis. The mystical figure of Calunga mysteriously appears in the big house. He causes deep transformations in the family. Calunga relates to the women of the house and shakes the established patriarchal structure.

10-year-old Pixote endures torture, degradation, and corruption at a local youth detention center where two of its members are murdered by policemen who frame Lilica, a 17-year-old trans hustler. Pixote helps Lilica and three other boys escape and they start to make their living by a life of crime which only escalates to more violence and death.