Filmmakers Cláudio Assis and Lírio Ferreira go on a journey through the frontier between the states of Pernambuco and Paraíba, Brazil, to show the importance poetry holds in local culture.

A host of personalities reminisce about the life and work of songwriter, lawyer, and congressman Humberto Teixeira — aka "Baião Doctor" — the author of such classic Brazilian popular songs as "Asa Branca". A musical film about the baião, a movement in Brazilian music in the 1940s and 1950s that was later snowed under by samba and bossa nova.

A fearsome 19th century bandit, Cobra Verde cuts a swath through Brazil until he arrives at the sugar plantation of Don Octávio Countinho. Not knowing that his new guest is the notorious bandit and impressed by his ruthless ways, Don Octávio hires Cobra Verde to oversee his slaves. But when Cobra Verde impregnates Don Octávio’s three daughters, the incensed plantation owner exiles the outlaw to Africa where he is expected to reopen the slave trade. Following his trans-Atlantic journey, Cobra Verde exploits tribal conflicts to commandeer an abandoned fortress and whips an army of naked warriors into a frenzied bloodlust as he vies for survival.

Documentary about popular art manifestations in Northeast Brazil: the "cordel" literature (popular literature, small stories sold in markets); "repente", kind of musical challenge between two singers, who have to improvise the verses, in strict rhyme; and the interaction between these and local popular song.

The phenomenon of Brazilian oral literature with a study on cordel literature and popular singing.