影片是根据真人真事改编，描写巴西备受争议的扮装皇后莎塔崛起前的传奇故事，展现了20世纪30年代里约热内卢红灯区底层人们的生存状态。
莎塔在龙蛇杂处的拉帕区，生长于贫穷和混乱之中，毒品，犯罪，卖淫...生活不一而足。他备受侮辱，然而内心存在自己的梦想，那就是歌唱。他与一个黑人，一个白人妇女及她的小女孩生活在一起，他们相互扶助。他遇见如印度王子般俊美的雷那托，两人展开剧烈的爱情。后来雷那托死去。莎塔在酒吧演出越来越成功，他最终成为亮眼的变装舞台天后。
本片音乐极其魅惑好听。
这是巴西/法国2002年同志片，芝加哥电影节最佳影片，戛纳、日舞、多伦多等国际电影节参赛作品，台湾金马国际影展作品。

Ubaldo receives an inheritance that will change his destiny for good. In the heart of the northeast desert, he'll become the leader of a pack of ruthless bandits, fulfilling the legacy of his biological father - a mythical "Cangaceiro".

漂泊不定且急需用钱来支付养父治疗费的银行职员乌巴尔多不记得自己的童年经历，却获得了一笔将永远改变其命运的遗产。他去了位于西北沙漠中心地带的克拉塔拉，在那里，他将成为一群残酷劫匪的头目，完成他亲生父亲、神话般的坎加索劫匪的遗志。

After breaking off her engagement on her wedding day and going directly to a prostitution house, a young model becomes the city's most famous harlot, known as "Hilda Hurricane", in the 50's Brazil. She could do fine if it wasn't for Malthus, a young novice said to be a saint, for whom she falls in love. However, the boy is kept under the strict, severe doctrine of Father Nelson, a conservative priest intolerant even to every minor sin. Things start getting harder when Roberto, Malthus' old friend and a communist reporter (the actual author of the story), tries to interview Hilda and disclosure the real reasons behind her radical change of mind. In the meantime, the middle-classes are terrified by the "leftist threat" in Brazilian politics.

Gorete is an eccentric and famous radio talk show host in a small fictitious town called Pau Torto. She carries a sad past for having been rejected by her father when she was a child for being homosexual, and for this she abandoned her family and her great love. After years away from her origins, she finds out that her father is about to die and returns to her family's farm. There, she discovers that in order to receive her father's inheritance, she is obliged to marry. Thus begins a great dispute in the town as to who will be Gorete's husband.