Frederico Confalonieri

A documentary on the influence that carnival has on the daily life of the Mangueira hill in Rio de Janeiro. It follows the manufacture of the carnivals of 1981 and 1982, interviewing several residents who tell the story of more than half a century of the favela's existence and emphasizing its community importance and cultural, to the sound of the most beautiful sambas composed on Mangueira.

Maria Eduarda "Duda" Pinheiro is a successful top model. After being hired to model Covery brand clothes, she meets the Kundera brothers, Alex and Gaspar, owners of the company. Gaspar, a former beatnik, is over 40 but still practices surfing, lives in a beach-side house and raises five children: Elvis (named after Elvis Presley), Ringo (Starr), Jane (Fonda), Olívia (Newton-John) and (John) Lennon, all from different mothers who left them with him. Anastácia "Naná" Passos, Duda's friend and mentor, loves him platonically, and rivalizes with Mariza Borges over him. Alex by contrast is a yuppie. He and their mother Morgana have a love-hate relationship and rivalry with his brother over Morgana's attention and the company. Alex begins to love Duda, however she falls in love with Lucas, a graffiti artist who is on the run from the São Paulo police due to his involvement in a crime there. He is also searching for his real father, and thinks it's either Alex or Gaspar.

The determined Genuína dreams of the return of Diego, the father of her children Rodrigo and Mercedes, who reject their mother's origins. Diego reappears with a different identity and changes Genu's destiny.

Set in Poços de Caldas, Minas Gerais, the story shows how Pardal and Bebel, young people newly arrived in the city, fall in love. However, each hides their true identity from the other.

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.

In 1970, during a glittering New Year's Eve party attended by the aristocracy, a young pantry maid named Zaíra is mysteriously murdered. Thirteen years later, the prime suspect—Gastão, a humble waiter and former colleague of the victim—seeks to prove his innocence with the help of his son, Nil, becoming entangled in the lives of the other party guests. The story also follows a cunning pair of jewel thieves: the sophisticated Antônia Regina and João Maria—a criminal lawyer and member of the declining aristocracy who takes up the cause of Nil's father.