Shortly after the death of his wife, a father of four retreats into bed and into mourning until the house is left to self-manage. The older children think about how to pull him out of this stupor; the eldest begins by mimicking their mother's voice. Soon, the game spirals out of control, just like each of their identities.

Accused of adultery, Ana Augusta Plácido and Camilo Castelo Branco were imprisoned for more than a year in the Porto Prison, she in June 1860, he in October of the same year, after an adventurous escape from justice through the lands of the North.