伊佐拉（露塞莉亚·桑多斯 Lucélia Santos 饰）虽然身为女奴，却有着一个善良的女主人马尔薇娜（诺尔玛·布鲁姆 Norma Blum 饰），一直以来，她的待遇和大小姐别无二致。然而，伊佐拉的好日子在马尔薇娜的儿子莱昂（鲁本斯·法尔科 Rubens de Falco 饰）回家之后就结束了，莱昂看上了美丽贤惠的伊佐拉，对她百般骚扰，令伊佐拉苦不堪言。为了解救伊佐拉，马尔薇娜决定还伊佐拉一个自由之身。
某日，伊佐拉遇见了名为多比亚斯的英俊少爷，两人坠入了情网。莱昂得知他们的恋情嫉妒的快要发疯，千方百计想要拆散两人。在莱昂的设计之下，多比亚斯惨遭拘禁，伊佐拉的解放证书也被付之一炬。

本片改编自巴西名著。一个民工家庭为富有的庄园主看管牲口，境况逐渐改善，但父亲被骗跟当地警察玩牌，引起争吵，遭到警察毒打。影片结束时，严重的乾旱迫使全家又上路寻找新的生活出路。本片充满了对弱者的人文关怀和对社会不公的抗议，标志着巴西“新电影运动”的启动。

In 1963, in the village of Milagres in a very poor area of Brazil, a group of soldiers arrive to protect the store of a politician from a group of starving people. They have rifles for guarding the food and avoid the sacking by the population. One of the soldiers, completely drunken, kills a local in a dispute with his colleagues for killing a goat. The truck driver Gaúcho (Átila Iório) revolts against the passivity of a father that has just lost his little daughter, who died of starvation, and the pacific population that only prays and follows a preacher, and fights against the soldiers.

Based on true events in Rio de Janeiro, in 1960, when a gang having the infamous outlaw Tião Medonho as a leader performed a sensational railroad hold-up on a train carrying a small fortune.