At the height of the military dictatorship, an abandoned mansion in the center of São Paulo is occupied by militants, hippies, maniacs, homosexuals, punks, artists and poets, as well as immigrants from different parts of the world.

Short film about the life and work of the poet Murilo Mendes.

Theater director asks his actors for a research on human cruelty and misery in Brazil, while trying to raise funds for his next production, a play based on a story by Machado de Assis, "A Causa Secreta" (The Secret Cause). The troupe oblige and go around town witnessing long lines in National Health Services, inhuman conditions in public hospitals and poor people being constantly humiliated. They find people are becoming indifferent to human suffering.

A series of murders begins to haunt Cordilheira, a small town near São Paulo, Brazil. The investigations show there is a love triangle involved.

Disagreements, incommunicability between people. What is said is not heard, what is heard is not understood. Everything is ambiguous. What appears to be is not, except poetry.

The police mobilize their resources to capture Nenê Bandalho and, while he tries to escape, he remembers some of his life's most important episodes.