When Gabriela came to the Brazilian town of Ilheus, things would never be the same again ... In 1925, the town's cacao plantations are flourishing and progress reigns, but Nacib the Arab's most desperate worry is that his cook has walked out of his bar. He ventures over to the market to hire a migrant worker to help him and comes across a young mulatto girl named Gabriela who is wild and has hair filthy with dust. But something in her voice makes him take a chance, and it seems he's not the only man who's noticed her. Suddenly there is more to think about than everyday concerns: love affairs,...

A Brazilian Lord of the Flies, about a group of boys who live by their wits and daring in the slums of Bahia
They call themselves Captains of the Sands, a gang of orphans and runaways who live by their wits and daring in the torrid slums and sleazy back alleys of Bahia. Led by fifteen-year-old Bullet, the band including a crafty liar named Legless, the intellectual Professor, and the sexually precocious Cat pulls off heists and escapades against the right and privileged of Brazil. But when a public outcry demands the capture of the little criminals, the fate of these...