In an old, dilapidated mansion in downtown São Paulo, an old Shakespearean actor exiled from the stage lives with his ghosts. In his bed, surrounded by red curtains taken from an abandoned theater, he dreams of the plague and fire spreading throughout the country. A strange community forms around the old actor.
Ophelia is a 20-year-old girl who lives with her mother and grew up without a father. She suspects that he is Tedesco, a German artist who has just returned to Brazil. Determined to find him, she sends a letter notifying him of her arrival and that she will swim to him from the Santos bridge. Upon learning of the imminent arrival, Tedesco asks Smutter, his great friend, to start following her closely.