Sixteen stories, each about a female character and a neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro, are interwoven into an intimate and touching portrait of the life of this great city. Women like Maria, 93, raided her house for the umpteenth time, by an armed robber, or jade, aged 6, left in the care of her mother's last boyfriend. And neighborhoods that run through all the realities of the city, from the elitist private urbanizations to the hard life of the favelas and the suburbs. Each of the stories captures a crucial moment in the lives of these women: Renata, 34, a receptionist at a dentist's office, decides to take revenge on her husband's infidelities; The adolescent helena must choose between the comfort of her middle class neighborhood and the adventure of the dangerous world of the favelas when she falls in love with a drug dealer ... And as a guiding thread of all the stories, of all those existences, the shadow Of a male character, Raphael, who enters and leaves lives, often sowing confusion in his wake ...