Maria Helena Matos

Professor Hermes conducts a research on fear, for which he passes contract with a patient to live a supposedly empty mansion. He's counting on his assistant Chico Mota to play a phantom, but soon comes about that there are phantoms (plural) in there.

This Portuguese drama examines the daily life minutiae and intrigues of two scions of society in the rural village where they live. One is a wealthy landowner, the other a widowed aristocrat who lives in a world of her own.

Luís - ex-student in Lisbon and ex-combatant in Africa - finds, after returning, Maria, secretary who has a relationship with António. He lives in a palace with his children, two old aunts and a Dominican friar, a former missionary.