Two contrasting social groups get in touch: three architects and three street urchins, all struggling for survival.

In the bohemian 1960s Rio de Janeiro, the 16 year-old rebel and reckless teenager Marcelo, a terrible student that plays hooky from school, dreams on leaving his home and move to São Paulo to work hard, make money and travel abroad to visit the world.

Noronha is a low middle-class civil servant who lives with his frustrated wife Gorda and their four eldest daughters. The youngest one, virginal Silene, is unexpectedly sent back from boarding school after killing a female cat and her seven newborns in a hysterical fit. Many dark family secrets will emerge from that episode leading to tragic events.