In Pau Brasil, a small, isolated town in the heart of Brazil, the families of Joaquim and Nives live side by side. Although they live together in the same perverse structure of social oppression, the ways they deal with life are radically different. Intolerance toward others and poverty are the ingredients of this tragic drama in which each person bears their contradictions, coexisting with both classical and Afro-Brazilian myths.—Sylvia Abreu