La película está basada en las experiencias del doctor Drauzio Varella en la prisión estatal Carandiru, en São Paulo, Brasil, durante sus trabajos de prevención del SIDA. En la prisión se encontró con cientos de convictos bajo condiciones infrahumanas hasta el punto culminante de 1992 cuando una revuelta provocó el asesinato de 111 hombres.
Many exotic characters meet in São Paulo night, looking for love and adventure: Malu, a model; Mauro, the drag queen; Teddy, the hustler; Guto, the gay reporter; and Marta, an actress.
Young girl spends her adolescence in an institution for minors, developing some masculine traits in her personality. In this hostile environment, she can only find some sympathy in a teacher. After leaving the place, she falls in love with a divorced woman in her work, mother of a young boy, which aggravates her inner conflicts.