A Lebanese photographer living in Brazil in the '30s manages to film the band of Lampião, a legendary Brazilian bandit.
Little known actor, Jack Noah, is working on location in the dictatorship of Parador at the time the dictator dies. The dictator's right hand man, Roberto, makes Jack an offer he cannot refuse.. to play the dictator. Jack's acting skills fool the masses but not close friends and employees of the dictator.
Small-town trickster Pedro Malasartes has to face two great enemies: Próspero, who will do anything to impede such a lazy, cowardly person like Malasartes from dating his sister, Áurea; and Death incarnated, who wants to take a vacation after two thousand years collecting lives and intends on tricking Malasartes into assuming his tedious job.
