Noronha is a low middle-class civil servant who lives with his frustrated wife Gorda and their three elder daughters. The youngest one, virginal Silene, is unexpectedly sent back home. Noronha discovers she has been expelled from boarding school for having killed a female cat and her seven newborns in a hysterical fit. Many dark family secrets will emerge from that episode leading to tragic events.

Edson is having an affair with a left-wing aspiring movie director during Brazil's military dictatorship years. He tries to get some easy money for her film, but ends up being arrested and tortured as his torturers suspect he's involved in a plot to overthrow the military government.