In Brazil's northeast, marauders from a big ranch raid a tannery and kill a girl's parents. Fifteen years later, the girl, Luzia, is a talented vacera who shows up at the ranch, bent on revenge, telling no one who she is. The domineering and hot-tempered rancher, Raulino, hires her, and sexual tensions immediately arise among Luzia, his younger brother Alexandre who is back from mining studies in the U.S., their imperious sister Tereza, Tereza's lover who is a political radical opposed to Raulino's land-grabbing, and the ranch foreman, the murderous Crapiúna. How Luzia navigates this charged landscape and how she handles her avenging resolve determine the outcome.