Henrique Lisboa

After 20 years of exile in Paris, Gustavo returns to his native city São Paulo. Back home, he encounters a place which no longer exists. His old friends and family members have changed, almost beyond recognition. He tries to recapture the past, and make some sense of his life, that of his friends and family, and the present state of his native country.

A small poor community called Javé is under threat of being flooded by a new dam that is being built, and the only way to prevent this is to prove the town's historical value. As most of the inhabitants are illiterate, they have no choice but to ask for the help of Antônio Biá, a man who has been ostracized ever since it was discovered that he had sent out letters with lies about their reputations as a way to keep his job in Javé's seldom-used post office. He now has the task of documenting people's memories of how the city was founded, yet each inhabitant has his or her own version of what happened.

Nhô Quim has only one dream in his life: to eat red meat. He meets Carula, a young woman anxious to get married, who promises him that in their wedding her father will kill him an ox. But, before that, Nhô Quim must pass a series of tests.

On Jo's birthday, her mother, and later, her father, discover that she is not a virgin anymore - she is taking pills. The birthday party turns into a complete mess, since Jo's mother can not hold herself and accuses her daughter in front of all guests of not being a child that everyone thought she still was. Jo rebels and leaves the house, and discovers that her boyfriend listened to everything and did not help her. She decides to leave him, and to start her life again. As a woman, now.

In the struggle for land a vicious feud erupts between two men, who commit their families to a war without truce. Over two generations they are moved by love and by hatred in this epic saga of love for the land.