An adaptation of Machado de Assis' eponymous short story, preceded by a short telling of the author's life and works.

A good-hearted man, betrayed by his wife and friends, fakes his death and takes up a new identity, as a nameless, wandering drunkard.

A young woman from the countryside comes to Rio to try to be a theater star with the support of a friend, but to achieve what she wants, she ends up getting her own mother into trouble.