"The Butterfly in the Cage" is a novel by Luís Filipe Costa adapted to film by the author, it follows the daily lives of several people connected to newspapers, television, film and theater in Lisbon, in the days leading up to the revolution of 25 April 1974.

O Outro Teatro proposes a look at the independent theater manifestations that came in the wake of the pioneering gestures of Teatro Experimental do Porto.

The Soares are a bourgeois couple, living in a good neighbourhood of Lisbon, but João, their son, is not integrating well in that pattern. He attends more political meetings than classes at the Faculty of Economy, and gets a job but that's short lived because his female boss makes him her lover. He longs for the coffee shops, and the companions of old, but he doesn't get true love from anyone.

The gritty lives of Portuguese villagers are shown in this action drama which shows the interaction between a married couple who have taken an unusual vow of celibacy and a gang of gypsies who are terrorizing their village. The film highlights many ancient religious traditions still current in these regions, as the villagers, devout Catholics, support the gypsy con-men by buying religious relics from them.