Marcelino, a country bumpkin, comes from the countryside to try his luck in Rio de Janeiro. His uncle Simão, a taxi driver and resident of a favela with Sofia, comes to greet him at the train station. A neighbor, Tereza, takes an interest in the newcomer. At the pier, the criminal Zé receives a package and is pursued by police. Mira Diler performs at the Caverna nightclub. In her dressing room, the criminal Zé is found, injured and without the package. Valentino complains about the police action that is disrupting his "business." Marcelino still hasn't found work; at the same time, he tries unsuccessfully to sell his compositions. He begins helping his uncle as a driver, but puts his own worries first: he goes to the nightclub looking for Mira, but finds himself caught up in Valentino's schemes.
The adventures of a peaceful and infatuated man, who tries to identify the man who killed his sweetheart, an unconventional young woman who used to receive "guests" at home, calling them her cousins.
A lady, owner of a large area of land where it is believed there are several oil wells, is almost fooled by the president of a pseudo petroleum company into giving up her property for nothing, but is saved by his son's noble intervention.
A small town is invaded by bandits who kidnap a rich man's daughter and other young girls. A group of rescuers is assembled, but three of the town's most fearful residents decide to transform into the funniest three musketeers in cinematic history.
Winner of a Theater talent contest, in which he was the only one to enroll, Belizário da Silva leaves his hometown, and tries to make it in Rio de Janeiro.
Ms. Violante Miranda is a bordello owner who raises a small girl as her own granddaughter. When she gets a little older, she is sent to study in Europe, and when she returns, she becomes a socialite, rejecting her previous milieu and her "grandmother".
The film narrates the adventures of the trickster Juca Moleza in the carnival while he has to deal with the consequences of the scams he applied to people of high society.
The young generation is not very at peace with the morality of their parents. In a story set in a Moravian village, the otherwise contented cooperators indulge in stealing from the common property without seeing anything wrong with such actions.