Brasil República, 1918. Luís Jerônimo is a rich young man. Womanizer, spends all night on the street drinking and having fun with prostitutes, the boy finds out that he has an injury to his right lung. Advised by Edmundo Esteves, his doctor, he decides to spend a season at a cousin's farm in the small town of Vila da Mata in Espírito Santo, in search of fresh air, to prevent the disease from developing into tuberculosis.

After the mysterious disappearance of his father, Joventino, the cowboy José Leôncio becomes a wealthy farm owner in Pantanal. Over twenty years have passed and, bitter-hearted because of his father vanishing and the escape of his wife to Rio de Janeiro with his baby, José Leôncio has the chance to make amends with the boy, now a young man raised in the big city with very different values and habits than his own.