Elder manages the hotel inherited from his father. In his hands the hotel went from a luxury resort to a hotel on the verge of bankruptcy. Unsuccessful in his professional life, this failure is repeated in his social life with a marriage in ruins and with no prospect of improvement. At the limit of his emotional balance, Elder puts everything at risk when facing his demons and the consequences of his decisions.

Miguel, a 7-year-old boy, lives with three generations of estranged women in an old house. Among them is his mother who, after a traumatic divorce, distances herself from the boy. Miguel takes comfort in Carmen, an enigmatic Venezuelan immigrant who works as a maid for this Brazilian family. Carmen becomes an ambiguous mother figure for the boy, who develops an intimate and unusual bond with her, introducing him to a universe in which the real and the imaginary intertwine.