A story about doomed love between two people from different worlds and the impact in their lives.

A story about doomed love between two people from different worlds and the impact in their lives. Based on the novel of the same name by Portuguese writer Camilo Castelo Branco.

Trafaria changes his business to Angola, in search of a more profitable occupation, by shaming the pioneers. There he engages in the obscure social and political environment, from which emerge some characteristic figures - administrators, their wives and secretaries, Arabs, police officers, priests and mercenaries...

This is an intriguing avant-garde look at what motivates the leisurely classes in Portugal, for better or worse, by director Manoel de Oliveira. Set in a spacious country home peopled with a wide-ranging cast of characters, the drama begins as the friends of a widow come to console her on the loss of her husband. But at one point, the widow goes upstairs, encounters her husband, and is faced with his accusations about the past. This event and others provide the means of revealing the petty, self-serving, egocentric, and romantic pursuits of the melange of people in the house. - Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi