This made-for-tv medium-length feature consists of the story of Paulo Honório, a simple but ambitious man who ends up transforming himself into a large farmer in the backlands of Alagoas, North-eastern Brazil. He marries Madalena to get an heir. Unable to understand the humanitarian way in which the woman sees the world, he tries to nullify her with his authoritarianism. Originally São Bernardo, is a novel written by Graciliano Ramos, published in 1934 and set in the second stage of Brazilian modernist style. It is with this novel that Ramos acquires critical recognition, and matures a drier style than that of his previous book, Angústia, (his masterpiece) which had given him more popularity.