A professional hitman returns to Brazil and is hired to eliminate an Argentine Delegate in a Rio de Janeiro convention. Inspector José da Silva realizes the plot and starts to pursuit him.
In Minas Gerais, the powerful "colonel" Alexandrão gets married with the young and virgin Cristina and promotes a huge wedding party in his farm. He eats and drinks a lot along the day, and in his "first night" with the bride, he dies before consummating his marriage. The marital status of Cristina becomes very unusual, being a virgin widow. Her doctor advises her to travel to Rio de Janeiro to rest, and she moves with her aunt to an inherited apartment in Leme. Once in Rio de Janeiro, the rascal Constantino, who is aware of her wealth, courts her and borrows money, clothes and a Mercedes Benz from his friends, pretending he is businessman man. His friends release "stocks" in a parallel stock market, based and supported in the expectation of the possible marriage of Constantino with Cristina. However, the ghost of Coronel Alexandrão appears for her whenever she intends to have sex with Constantino.
Homeless children in the slums of Rio are driven out of their temporary shelters by ruthless gangsters in this somber drama. The kids survive by shining shoes, stealing, and cutting the strings of the kites to sell them later to others. Tired of life on the streets, one boy turns himself over to the police in hopes he will be sent to reform school in a last desperate attempt to survive. This feature from acclaimed Swedish director Arne Sucksdorff appeared at the 1965 Cannes Film Festival.
