这部根据真人真事改编，讲述一个12岁的贫民区女孩的苦难生活，深刻揭露当代巴西社会的童妓问题的影片获得了当年加拉马多电影节的七项大奖。 In Northeastern of Brazil, the father of the twelve years old illiterate Maria sells his daughter to Tadeu to be employed as a housemaid and have a better life. However, the girl is resold to the farmer Lourenco that deflowers her, and he gives the abused girl to his teenager son to have his first sexual experience. Then she is sent to a brothel in a gold field in Amazonas and explored his owner, the despicable Saraiva. When Maria escapes to Rio de Janeiro expecting a better life, she is explored by the cáften Vera. In 2002, 12-year-old Maria, living in dire poverty with her family, is sold by her fisherman father to prostitute recruiter Seu Tadeu, who takes her to a low-class brothel in the Amazon region. While she suffers innumerable abuses, Maria only thinks of escaping the horrible conditions she's faced with. Maria, a 12-year-old girl, is sold by her parents, believing she was going to work as a maid at some rich family's house. But the people who bought her have other plans: they'll force her to work at brothels all around Brazil, as many poor girls her age.