Los problemas de una madre soltera la obligan a abandonar su ciudad con su hija, de seis años. Esta nueva vida le crea a la madre problemas de dinero y otras dificultades que la obligan a tomar medidas extremas.
In the early 1970s in Rio de Janeiro, the seamstress single mother Manuela moves with her six year-old daughter, Tati, from the suburb of Penha to a small apartment in Copacabana expecting a better life. However, she has financial difficulties to support her simple lifestyle and her spoiled daughter misses her absent father, who never returned home. When Manuela gets pregnant, her life becomes harder.