Andre is 20 years old and has never finished high school. He is a photocopier operator at J. Gomide Bookstore and Stationers, in the Fourth District, a working class neighborhood in Porto Alegre, south of Brazil. He lives with his mother. He likes drawing and he likes Silvia. Andre desperately needs $38. Silvia is 18. She goes to night school and during the day she is a shop assistant in a women's clothes store. She lives with her father, she likes reading and is not too crazy about figs. Silvia has a date at the top of the Corcovado mountain, in Rio, and she cannot miss it. Marines works at the bookstore with Andre. She dates, but not so regularly, a German guy who lives in Holland. Marines looks really good in dresses she cannot afford to buy. Cardoso will do anything for her. And Marines does anything she wants with him. Almost anything. Cardoso quit smoking. Two days ago, at Marines request. He does not even miss it that much. Only sometimes, after lunch. That cigarette. If you don't smoke, you have no idea what it means, that cigarette after lunch. Andre needs $38 to buy a chenille dressing gown and to save Silvias's life. Andre thinks up many plans to make money. And they all work out.