Young woman goes looking for her missing boyfriend, a photographer last seen going down huge São Francisco River, in Brazil. On her search, she is told many stories about that river.

Galanga, king of Congo brought to Brazil as a slave, finds gold in Vila Rica, in the State of Minas Gerais, and buys his enfranchisement, the properties of his former owner, and his companions' freedom, becoming Chico Rei, the first black man to own lands in Brazil.