Solange Radislovich

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.

The soap opera follows the story of young Aurélia Camargo (Norma Blum), a girl who falls in love with the ambitious young journalist Fernando Seixas (Cláudio Marzo), who also falls in love with her, but rejects her when he receives an invitation to marry Adelaide (Fátima Freire), the daughter of Tavares do Amaral (Felipe Wagner), a wealthy banker. Feeling abandoned by her great love, Aurélia dreams of one day having him back. Until, when she turns 18, she is surprised with an inheritance from her grandfather, and becomes a very rich woman, allowing her to create her own rules for her life. However, for the society of the time, it was not good form for a woman to enjoy such independence. For this reason, Aurélia begins to rely on a distant relative, Dona Firmina Mascarenhas (Zilka Sallaberry), to act as her mother, and on the administrator Mr. Lemos (Alberto Perez), to guide her in business. So, she sees a great opportunity to have Fernando in her life again.

Five friends decide to enjoy Mardi Gras without their wives, leaving them home. But one of the wives doesn't accept this arrangement and tries to get even.