Adrift and desperately needing money to pay for his ailing adoptive father's care, Ubaldo, a bank clerk who's unable to remember his childhood, receives an inheritance that will change his destiny for good. He goes to Cratará, in the heart of the northwest desert, where he'll become the leader of a pack of ruthless bandits, fulfilling the legacy of his biological father - a mythical cangaceiro.

Amid the political turmoil of Brazil in 1977, a technology expert is forced into hiding and seeks help from the underground resistance as he tries to flee the country with his young son.