A writer who specializes in exposing fake witchcraft journeys to Brazil to investigate a voodoo cult.

Fleeing from the orphanage where he was living, young Valdo immediately entered the life of the crime, establishing himself as a dangerous adult criminal. However, his petty thefts do not satisfy him and he longs for bigger things and when he becomes a lover of Beth, the young criminal realizes that he can enrich himself very and very fast.

Aquiles Taveira is a civil servant harassed by his own family's financial demands. Tired of it, he decides to fake an embezzlement at his work and runs away to the seaside resort of Guarujá, where he manages to live peacefully, for too short a time.

Rosario is a prostitute who lives in her married sister's house. When the latter wants to be a hooker too, she doesn't approve.

Ms. Violante Miranda is a bordello owner who raises a small girl as her own granddaughter. When she gets a little older, she is sent to study in Europe, and when she returns, she becomes a socialite, rejecting her previous milieu and her "grandmother".

Four deserters from Paraguay War hide in an old drunkard's country seat. The latter has two daughters who are unhappy with their recluse lives.

On the eve of his 78th birthday, ailing, alcoholic writer Clive Langham spends a painful and sleepless night mentally composing and recomposing scenes for a novel in which characters based on his own family are shaped by his fantasies and memories, alongside his caustic commentary on their behaviour.

In the time of the "cangaceiros" in the badlands of the Northeast of Brazil, the cruel Captain Galdino Ferreira and his band abduct the schoolteacher Olívia, expecting to receive a ransom for her. However, one of his men, Teodoro, falls in love and flees with her through the arid backcountry chased by the brigands.