Adrift and desperately needing money to pay for his ailing adoptive father's care, Ubaldo, a bank clerk who's unable to remember his childhood, receives an inheritance that will change his destiny for good. He goes to Cratará, in the heart of the northwest desert, where he'll become the leader of a pack of ruthless bandits, fulfilling the legacy of his biological father - a mythical cangaceiro.

Summer 1996, north-east coast of Brazil. Tamara is enjoying her last weeks at the fishing village she lives in before departing to Brasilia for her studies. One day, she hears about a teenager nicknamed Heartless after a scar she has on her chest. Over the course of the summer, Tamara feels a growing attraction for this mysterious girl.

At a construction site, a delivery man lunches with his bricklayer friends and watches a crossfire between the engineer and the foreman.