Miguel Mestre

An unlikely love with a happy ending... At age 40, Miguel is at the top of his career as a plastic surgeon, having reached the fame and fortune he worked so hard for. He’s a hopeless bachelor, never committing to any real relationship. This is not just by choice, his situation is a result of never having met his parents and being raised in a children’s home. But, overnight, a simple phone call will change his life entirely, making him recall a point in his life that he’d rather forget. His best friend from the institution was just killed in a car crash along with his wife, but left written instructions behind stating that, if something should happen to him, Miguel should be given custody of his three children, 12-year-old Simão, 8-year-old Jaime and 6-year-old Beatriz. Initially, Miguel will try to dismiss himself from any responsibility but, after meeting the kids, he realizes that he has no choice but to bring them home.

Diogo Almada is a successful account manager at a telecommunications company who is struggling with serious stress and anxiety issues due to the constant state of pressure he lives in. His situation becomes worse when he suffers a stroke which puts him in hospital. There, doctors tell him that if he doesn't slow down things could become much worse for him in the future. He also meets the owner of a vegetables and herbs greenery in Beirais, a small village in the midlands, who is looking to sell it. Diogo then decides to buy him out and risk it as a farmer himself. He wants his girlfriend Teresa to come along with him, but she refuses to leave Lisbon due to her career and also because she doesn't want to give up her city comforts. But Diogo decides to move to Beirais anyway, where he is faced with an entirely different reality from what he’s used to.

Freedom is a state of mind... Carlos, José and Matias are three old friends who have known each other since childhood. José lives with his daughter, his son in law and his nine-year-old grandson Pedro. Being a grandfather is his only true source of happiness. Carlos is retired and spends most of his days tinkering. Matias, on the other hand, is a widower and lives alone and abandoned, as his son is living abroad. Each of them has a strong and contentious character of their own, but they are all joined by a deep friendship. When José is sent to a retirement home, Carlos and Matias set a plan to bust him out. They sneak into the retirement home and take him away from that depressing environment in which he was discarded. They know that they can’t come back home, so they decide to spend a while in Matias’ house up north. But, in the middle of their escape, they find José’s grandson snuck in there. Pedro doesn't want to leave his grandpa and insists on accompanying them in their journey.

A family by force... Paulo and Susana have been together for a few years now and decide to take the next step in their relationship by moving in together. But, as they're signing the deed to the house, her father, who was supposed to bring the check, ends up delivering the bad news that there is no money for the house, thus ending this young couple’s dream. However, Artur doesn’t want to come off as a bad parent, so he offers his attic to them so that they can start their life together. So, Paulo’s dream turns into an absolute nightmare, as their life as a couple is, in fact, shared with seven other people who are all very different from them and will start controlling their every move in a permanently tense environment. The Mata family, as it turns out, is all insane, the only exception being Susana. And even her will have a hard time convincing the rest of the family to accept and welcome their new member.

Diana was born and raised in the neighborhood of Estrela Polar, lost hers parents when she was a child and leads a band of criminals who negotiates for drugs, money laundering, weapons, paintings, jewellery and tobacco.

The lives of two women intersect.

Nuno is the son of divorced parents. He lives a nomadic existence with his father: he lost all his friends and never stays long enough anywhere to make new friends. Now Nuno has become a drug addict, he’s in hospital, in a coma struggling between life and death. His father and his father’s sister remain by his bedside. The three separately evoke requests from the past and other characters they meet also complement their current life experiences and memories. Based on the novel by António Lobo Antunes.

Four people meet during a train trip up the Douro Valley.