Antônio is an astrophysicist who has just found out he has an inoperable brain tumor. After decades living in the United States, he returns to Brazil and tries to learn more about his biological mother. His quest sends him off into the slums of Rio de Janeiro.
Gafanhoto is a smuggler who tries to take a hit by stealing a valuable stone. He awakens the fury of the old boss of the gang, and ends up involving in the plot a former colleague, Poeta and his girlfriend Cris, a beautiful woman who brings in the eyes the mark of the tragedy.
Heitor and Matilde are two siblings who decide to murder their rich father in order to quickly inherit his wealth. They get the killing done, aided by Matilde's boyfriend Henrique, but after a while the three of them begin to recieve mysterious notes which suggest that their secret is in danger.
Passively facing the repression imposed by military dictatorship in Brazil in the 60s, a journalist gets into a personal crisis, aggravated by his love affair with an industrialist's wife, who doesn't want to leave her home because of her son
Seeing his farm in ruins, swindler tries to sell it to the first interested person, who happens to be a man who fakes being a millionaire but in fact cannot pay for the estate.