Cláudio Savietto

Many exotic characters meet in São Paulo night, looking for love and adventure: Malu, a model; Mauro, a drag queen; Teddy, a hustler; Guto, a gay reporter; and Marta, an actress.

Toquinho is a young man living in Marechal Hermes, a poor neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro, together with his widow mother and a younger sister. Although he is poor, he is also ambitious, and wants to change his life. He spends all his time on the beach, at Arpoador, Ipanema, where he dreams to become a famous surfer. Besides, he usually finds Patricia there, a rich and liberated young woman, whom he likes a lot. To impress Patricia and satisfy some of her wishes, he lets himself be seduced by André, a gay guy who, in return for his sexual favors, promises him a trip to Hawaii for a surf championship.

Enterprising youths live many adventures when they decide to start a business specializing in making video clips for rock groups.

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.

Romantic and dreamy, Eliana works at a five-star hotel and becomes involved with unrequited love, a bumbling gang, and a complex police story.

The central theme of the soap opera is the struggle for political control in the interior of Bahia between the two most powerful *coronéis* (landowning bosses) of the cocoa region: Sinhô Badaró and Horácio da Silveira. Virgílio, an ambitious lawyer, is summoned to the town by Colonel Horácio but ends up becoming involved with Ester, the colonel's wife. Captain João Magalhães is a card sharp who poses as a military engineer, successfully deceiving the entire town. He falls in love with Sinhô Badaró's daughter, Donana. By the end of the story, he reveals that he had only gotten close to the Badarós out of opportunism. After numerous clashes with Sinhô Badaró, Colonel Horácio secures political power in the town of Ferradas, with the acknowledgment of the local population.