Carla Perez (portrayed by Carla Fabianny as a child and by herself as an adult) lives with her father (Armindo Biao) and tuberculous mother (Juliana Calil) in a small, poor shack located somewhere in the middle of the sertao of Bahia. After her mother dies, Carla and her father decide to move to Salvador in order to achieve better life conditions. Carla, having an innate talent for dancing, soon is spotted by zany talent manager Pierre (Perry Salles) and his goon Beto (Josevaldo Oliveira); she is initially enthusiastic about her newly acquired fame, but soon discovers Pierre is an unscrupulous man that is only interested into the profits of exploiting her. Helped by her two vagabond friends, Bucha (Lucci Ferreira) and Chico (Lazaro Ramos), and by her boyfriend, Alexandre Pires (portrayed by himself), she garners the strength to fight Pierre back and live freely as she wishes.