Once Upon a Time...

A young woman, a teacher in a countryside school, has affairs with boys and girls.

Fernanda and Vivi are identical, but from different worlds. A cruel plan swaps their identities and transforms their lives into a game of lies and ambition.

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.

At the end of the 19th century, an influential man diplomatically defended the city of Curitiba against the action of revolutionaries in the south of Brazil to depose the country's president.

Professor Luciano Lima arrives in the fictional town of Nova Esperança to take over as principal of a school. A widower, he hires a governess to take care of his four children: Júnior, Babi, Zizi, and Rui. The professor and the governess, Paula, fall in love, but the romance faces strong resistance from the children, especially Babi, the most rebellious of the four. Luciano also encounters difficulties at the school. His former girlfriend, English teacher Maria do Carmo, does everything she can to steal his position as principal. Meanwhile, a group of maladjusted and rebellious students, led by the biker Rafa, disrupts the school environment and bothers the other students. In this scenario, Giovana, a young psychologist hired by Luciano to help him deal with the rebellious students, emerges. She ends up forming a love triangle with Paula and the professor.

For 30 years, José João Batista—better known as Zezão—worked for the same company. After being forced into retirement by the board, he is left bitter and resentful, only to win a major lottery prize. However, he never collects the winnings, as he is struck and killed by a vehicle beforehand; the winning ticket ends up being buried with him. Angelina, Zezão’s wife, and their four children—Pedro, Jesus, André, and Maria de Fátima—search everywhere for the ticket, until Angelina has a vision of her late husband. In the vision, he reveals that he was buried with the ticket, which was tucked into the pocket of his suit jacket. Angelina then decides to exhume Zezão’s body. When the coffin is opened, the family discovers the corpse wearing only his underwear and concludes that the ticket has been stolen. This sets the stage for the soap opera's main plot: the search for the missing ticket.

To defend the humble Soró Sereno in a traffic accident, the mysterious Ciro Cerqueira, a bus driver, ends up getting involved with the traditional italian family of Mamma Vittoria Cantarelli, owner of a chain of canteens in which he starts to work as an executive, and is torn between the love of the matriarch's granddaughters, the responsible Luísa and the seductive Bruna, a woman who spares no effort to get what she wants.

After an unjust imprisonment, friends return to the town of Remanso, facing betrayals and lost loves, while battling a corrupt lawyer.

The story's theme is spiritualism, viewed through the lens of past-life regression. Floriano Ferraz is a skeptical sculptor tormented by severe shoulder pain and visions of a woman dying at his feet. Exhausted, and encouraged by his master and friend, the craftsman Quirino, he seeks the help of psychiatrist Ulisses. Through regression techniques, he discovers that in 1880, in the city of Petrópolis, in the mountainous region of Rio de Janeiro, he was Lieutenant Belmiro, in love with the young Valentina. The young woman, married to an older man, is seriously injured while trying to flee with her beloved. After suffering a sword blow, she loses her balance and falls from the third floor of a mansion, at Belmiro's feet. Before dying, however, Valentina arranges a meeting with the lieutenant in the future. The experience completely transforms Floriano's life, and he decides to abandon everything, including his girlfriend Antônia, to pursue his past.

Two couples have their destinies intertwined after their happiness is unexpectedly interrupted. This is the starting point of the telenovela, which shares the same name as the São Paulo neighborhood where the story takes place. Solano Xavier is a man of humble origins who never had the chance to obtain a formal education. Unemployed for months, he celebrates with his wife Eugênia the fact that he has landed a temporary job as a truck driver. She reciprocates the good news by telling him she is pregnant. Solano, however, falls victim to a trap: unknowingly, he is transporting contraband goods on one of his trips. Detained by the police, he is arrested, tried, and sentenced to 17 years in prison. Throughout the telenovela, Solano discovers that Arthur is the main person responsible for the scheme that led to his imprisonment.

An industrialist is forced to marry his daughter Rosalia to a banker to save himself from bankruptcy. But Rosalia is in love with Adriano, unaware that he is the banker's son.

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.

Thirteen people from different parts of the world are chosen by an English nobleman to share his fortune. After his passing, they gather in his castle. However, the heirs begin to be murdered, one by one.

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.