João Ratão is one of many young Portuguese soldiers fighting in Flandres, France, during World War I. Back home, he now needs to fight for the love Vitória, to whom he sent love letters from France... written by a fellow soldier. João Ratão is illiterate.
It focuses on maritime tragedy of the town and a forbidden love between Julha and João Moço, from different fisher castes, in a community where mixed-caste marriages were not allowed and dating without parent's assent was seen as a disgrace to the family, not only in respect to women, but also...
The fatalism caught up and the amorous tragedy between Teresa de Albuquerque and Simão Botelho, who survives the intolerant litigation of her noble families.
João, a music teacher, tells his students the story of how twenty years earlier he fell in love with Anustchka, a circus performer, whom he left everything for.
