Rubens Rollo

10-year-old Pixote endures torture, degradation, and corruption at a local youth detention center where two of its members are murdered by policemen who frame Lilica, a 17-year-old trans hustler. Pixote helps Lilica and three other boys escape and they start to make their living by a life of crime which only escalates to more violence and death.

Macabéa has just moved to the big city after her aunt, who raised her, died. She gets a job as a typist and moves into a boarding house with three other women. In her spare time, she listens to a radio station called Time; on Sundays, she likes to ride the metro. Then she meets Olímpico, a northeasterner like herself, who has dreams of becoming a congressman.

In the 1950s, while radio is slowly being surpassed by television as the leading broadcast medium, Tito Balcárcel, a voice actor, becomes romantically involved with Lúcia, a fan of his who drags him into a mysterious crime plot.

The story begins when the police find a murdered young woman and link the crime to the activities of a drug gang. One of the central characters of this gang is Lucien, protagonist of the miniseries. He is one of the main mafia leaders in the country and the son of the powerful boss of União Corsa. Lucien disputes authority within the organization with Lorenzo, his antagonist. Still in the first chapter, Lucien meets the model Heloísa. The young woman comes from a middle-class family and dreams of social mobility. He falls madly in love with her, and the two begin a rapturous romance.