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.

Neto is a middle class teenager living a normal life. After his father finds a marijuana cigarette on his pocket, he is sent to a mental institution, where he gets to know a completely absurd and inhumane reality in which people are devoured by a corrupt and cruel system.

Blum and Elza conduct Scientific and anthropological researches in a desert island, where they use as subjects a old fisherman, the house keeper and a prostitute from the country. But the affection grows between the three of them, and this feelings are capable of compromising the whole research.

The romanced story of Xica da Silva, a slave that used her "feminine atributes" in order to get power.