Misfortune is a Cunha family affair, and no generation is spared. Not Daniel's grandfather Joao, born to a prostitute and forced to raise his siblings while still a child himself. Not Joao's wife, Marta, branded as a bruxa and dragged from Ilha by her scheming daughter, Maria. And certainly not Maria, so envious of her younger sister's beauty and benevolence that she fled to the states, abandoning her children Daniel and Lucia. But now Maria has returned to finally make peace with Daniel and Lucia, or so she says. Amid rampant poverty, political unrest, and violence a chorus of voices rises to ask whether we can ever truly repair the damage we do to those we love.