Lia rises professionally and finds the strength to ask her husband, Mário, a good-natured rogue, for a divorce. The separation will decisively influence the life of one of her sons, Chico-Tico, who begins to show symptoms of a rare neurological disease known as "absence syndrome." Through temporal lapses, the boy absents himself from the present life, living in another reality, of which he later retains no memory. In the village where the family lives, there also reside Nicola, a teenager infatuated with older women; his mother, Filomena, an Italian woman who tries to contain her son's passionate outbursts; Seu Oliveira, the newsstand owner, a friendly Spaniard with a slightly anarchist past; and his two daughters, Margô and Heleninha. Also living in Lia's house are Astrides, the maid who dreams of parading with the Mangueira samba school, and Manequinho, her son, who works at Seu Oliveira's newsstand.