In 1942 Rio de Janeiro, 25-year-old Alaíde is run over while crossing Carioca Street. She arrives at the hospital in a coma, and during her emergency surgery she recalls her life since her family moved into a former brothel. In her surrealistic daydream mixing hallucination, reality, and memory, she meets Madame Clessy, the bordello's owner, who had in 1905 been killed by her 17-year-old lover; and tells a passionate, tragic love story involving her husband Pedro, her jealous sister Lúcia and herself.