Brazil, 1977. Marcelo, a technology expert in his early 40s, is on the run. He arrives in Recife during carnival week, hoping to reunite with his son but soon realizes that the city is far from being the non violent refuge he seeks.

In the name of economic recovery, the Brazilian Government created a perennial system of compulsory vertical isolation for seniors over 80 to be confined in a colony. Teca is 77 and lives in the village of Muriti, in the Amazon, when she is surprised by the announcement of the age reduction, including her age group. Cornered, Teca makes an intriguing journey hidden from the officers amidst rivers, boats and the underworld to clandestinely try to fulfill her last dream, to take a plane ride.

At a bar table, old samba singer and composer Adoniran Barbosa tells a young waiter stories about a São Paulo that no longer exists. He fondly remembers the maloca where he lived with Joca and Mato Grosso, their passion for Iracema and other characters eternalized in his sambas, chronicles of a metropolis swallowed up by the voracious appetite of progress.