Valter's life turns upside-down when a gang of smalltime criminals move in next door. Valter's wife Iara wants something to be done about their new neighbors whos nigthtly activities does not allow them to sleep. Valter just wants to be left alone.

Free adaptation of Machado de Assis's short story "Pai Contra Mãe", having some of Nireu Cavalcanti's 18th Century chronicles as inspiration, the film traces parallels between life in during the slavery period and in modern Brazil.