In the Brazilian badlands of 1910, two families are locked in a deadly feud. Tonho, the middle son of the Breves family, is ordered by his father to avenge the death of his older brother, the victim of an age-old feud between families over the ownership of the land. If he carries out his mission, Tonho knows that his life will be divided in two: the twenty years he has already lived, and the short time he has left to live. He will then probably be killed by a member of the rival family, as dictated by the code of vengeance of the region. Distressed by prospect of death and urged on by his younger brother Pacu, Tonho begins to question the logic of the tradition of violence. This is when two performers in a little traveling circus cross his path...