Widowed one year ago, Eleonora, a 33-year-old woman from Sao Paulo's upper bourgeoisie, lives alone, unsuited to her husband's absence, an intellectual frustrated and torn between the need for transcendence and a strong sexual compulsion. The life of the couple, although not happy, was intense. However, the presence of her a long-time friend Ana Maria, just arrived from Paris, a middle-class university student, is staying at his house. The two go to the site of Eleonora and she remembers her life with Marcelo and his death by drowning.