Célio Rocha believes he was assigned by God Himself a difficult mission: to persuade his childhood friend Otávio Sabóia, a corrupt entrepeneur in the construction business, to give away all his possessions to the poor.

Domingos is a member of an African liberation movement, arrested by the Portuguese secret police, after bloody events in Angola. His wife goes from a prison station to another, trying in vain to find out where he is.

A few weeks before Carnival, slum boys organize huntings for stray cats, whose leather can be used in Samba percussion instruments, like the Tamborim, a small drum.