Ivan Mesquita

In 1925, Gabriela, a poor, uneducated, yet charming woman becomes cook, mistress, and then wife of Nacib, a bar owner in Ilhéus, a small Brazilian coastal town run by the local colonels.

An aspiring model leaves her wealthy middle-aged lover for a handsome young writer. But as her career takes off, their relationship gets worse.

Intrigues and mystery involve the murder of Vitor, a member of an important family, just when he was trying to save his economic empire from bankruptcy. In court, a beautiful woman becomes the center of the entire plot.

Polidoro is a naive farmer. Convinced by his daughter and son-in-law, he sells his farm to Agenor, a swindler and friend of his son-in-law. Through a trap, Polidoro travels to Bariloche while his farm is sold illicitly to third parties.

In 1886, in the small town of Araruna, Little Missy rejects the actions of her father—the slave-owning Colonel Ferreira—alongside Rodolfo, an active abolitionist republican with whom she falls in love.

After becoming a widower, businessman Aparício Varela takes over as president of Tecelagem Abdala and decides to win back the great love of his life, Rebeca.

The telenovela tells the story of Pedro, a young singer seeking recognition and success. The son of Celso and Anita leaves his parents' home when he discovers that his brother Claudio has become involved with his girlfriend Selma. The singer then goes to live in a student community, where he meets the siblings Bruno, a composer, and Nina. Pedro and Bruno begin a professional partnership. Nina ends up falling in love with the singer, but is torn between him and the former seminarian Chico.

The cunning Senator Petrônio Paranhos gives an interview to the beautiful journalist Magali Santanna, who is interested only in his affair with Arlete—an ambitious young woman intent on conceiving the older man's child via in vitro fertilization. To land this scoop, Magali agreed to interview the politician in a motel room, a condition he had insisted upon. However, Paranhos suffers a sudden collapse and dies during the interview. Detective Aristênio Catanduva, who had been keeping the senator under surveillance, investigates the case. Known by the codename "Araponga," he is a bumbling figure working for the Federal Police following his long service to the military regime.

Cláudia returns to her rural hometown in order to take revenge for the murder of her family a long time ago. She believes that the Flores family committed the crime and tries to destroy them....

Set in 1940s São Paulo, the story follows Laura, a modern woman devoted to the arts who is oppressed by her husband, Natércio Prado—a wealthy man with traditional views. Amidst marital turmoil, Laura suffers a severe trauma and is even committed to an asylum by her husband. The couple separates, and the family is torn apart: Laura keeps her youngest daughter, Virgínia, while Natércio retains custody of the other daughters, Otávia and Bruna. Frail and penniless, Laura moves into the Vila Mariana home of her neurologist, Daniel. He is in love with his patient and believes her condition is physical rather than mental. Laura hides the fact that Virgínia is actually Daniel's daughter. The youngest daughter eventually returns to live with her father, where she faces hostility and harshness from the housekeeper, Frau Herta.

The story follows the lives of Naná and Gegê, a pair of con artists. Gegê is the uncle of Tina Pepper, a Tina Turner fan who dreams of becoming a famous singer.

The mining town of São João Del Rei became the setting for a romance set amidst discussions about land division.

Unhappy in her marriage, Rachel decides to separate from her husband, the businessman Virgílio. Determined to turn her life around, she moves from Petrópolis to the southern zone of Rio de Janeiro with her daughter, Clara, and goes to live in her mother Laura's house in Ipanema. There she falls in love with the charming, but gruff, Heitor, owner of a mechanic shop. He lives with his sister, Irene, in an old townhouse, one of the main settings of the telenovela.

Pedro da Maia, meets a beautiful woman called Maria Monforte with whom he gets married despite his father's objection. The marriage produces a son, Carlos Eduardo, and a daughter. Some time later, Maria Monforte falls in love with Tancredo and runs away to Italy with him, taking her daughter along. When Pedro finds out, he goes with his son to his father's house where he commits suicide. Carlos stays at his grandfather's house and is educated by him. Carlos, becomes a doctor and opens his own office. Later he meets a gorgeous woman, Maria Eduarda. The two fall in love and have dozens of nights together. Eventually Carlos finds out later that Maria lied to him about her past and he starts fearing the worst. In the end, Carlos finds out that Maria is his sister. He informs her that they are siblings and that they cannot live like this anymore. Carlos, to forget his tragedies, goes for a trip around the world.

The central theme of the soap opera is the struggle for political control in the interior of Bahia between the two most powerful *coronéis* (landowning bosses) of the cocoa region: Sinhô Badaró and Horácio da Silveira. Virgílio, an ambitious lawyer, is summoned to the town by Colonel Horácio but ends up becoming involved with Ester, the colonel's wife. Captain João Magalhães is a card sharp who poses as a military engineer, successfully deceiving the entire town. He falls in love with Sinhô Badaró's daughter, Donana. By the end of the story, he reveals that he had only gotten close to the Badarós out of opportunism. After numerous clashes with Sinhô Badaró, Colonel Horácio secures political power in the town of Ferradas, with the acknowledgment of the local population.

A cowboy narrates his 'jagunço' life of disputes, revenges, loves and deaths, through the years that he traveled central-east Brazil, in the first decades of the 20th century, while federal troops were in conflict with provincial forces.