Lisbon, early 1940s. The neutral port town is an open door to freedom, for those who are escaping the Nazi occupied France and eastern European countries, and a war field for spies of every description. Lisbon became a cosmopolitan town, where the Duke of Windsor, Primo de Rivera, Pola Negri, Leslie Howard, Walter Schellenberg and Juan Garcia are often together in the luxury hotels and night-clubs. Espionage and crime go hand in hand, despite of, or encouraged by, the Portuguese secret police.
João Barbela is poor man who lives out of charity - what coins the people of Lisbon's popular districts give him as 'pay' for his puppeteering work. For the kids, he is like a king, Dom Roberto = puppet). When he meets Maria, an equally poor girl, he fancies to change her life, and get her a house, maybe marrying, and being happy together.Life does not exactly have a happy ending, like he managed with his puppets 5-minute plays...
Hipólito is a self-made man, who went up in life in devious ways, and used for profit the social turmoil when Portugal changed from a monarchy into a republic, and then to a military regime. Finally, he is forced into exile. Back in 1935 to family, friends, and lovers, he is in a mix-mesh of lies, and scheming, again.
