Anecy Rocha

A gang of bandits led by Faustão intervene in a fight between two members of rival families, the Pereiras and the Araújos. Henrique Pereira, son of Colonel Pereira, is wounded in an ambush. Faustão rescues him and demands the father to pay a ransom in exchange for the life of his son. The bandit makes it clear to Henrique that he is not a prisoner and that he is only obeying the law of the backlands. Lucena, a henchman working for the Araújos, finds Faustão and offers twice the amount being asked to the colonel in order to take Henrique as a prisoner, but the bandit refuses the offer. Colonel Henrique pays the ransom, but the son refuses to return home, even being aware of the feud between his family and the Araújos. The young man chooses to join the gang.

The eccentric members of a wealthy Brazilian family each go through personal torment, debauchery and intense guilt. The father has made a fortune in the slaughterhouse business and ignores the feelings of his wife and his workers. When the mother threatens to leave, the father begs for her to stay and continue the hollow charade of their marriage for the sake of social appearances.

An anguished university student in his early 30's ponders the state of his life in light of his relationships with a politicized classmate, a TV actress selling the image of a femme fatale and his bourgeois sister.

After years lost in a ingrate job, Hugo decides to take a drastic measure: to compensate for the time he lost, he will rob the bank in which he worked all his life. Everything goes well in the execution of the plan, but the appearance of the firm's cleaner can put everything to waste.

During the Carnival, in Niterói, the son of a Lira do Delírio nightclub dancer is kidnapped. With the help of a journalist friend, she dives into Rio de Janeiro's underworld and meet all kind of criminals. She also goes back in time, to a past carnival, where she thinks she might pin-point the culprit among a group of people.

An ubiquitous folk singer narrates the tale of a young boy, who apparently becomes immune to gunfire after his mother arranges for him to have an amulet bearing Ogum's blessings. As time goes by, he becomes a valuable member of a mobster's hit-team, but ends up joining a group of people who resist his original employers.

Jorge, an ambitious journalist, marries into money and betrays colleagues to become a powerful politician during political turmoil in 1946 Brazil.