Eugénio, 64 years old, is a convict. Daniel, 40 years old, is a truck driver from Massachussets, "honest and hard-working". The different stories and destinies which a marriage advertisement brings together. From prison, Eugénio pretends he is called Maria da Luz, a Portuguese girl looking for a husband, and puts an ad in the newspaper. Daniel answers and begins exchanging love letters with the "young woman". The correspondence becomes more intense, and is augmented by the voices of Idalina, Eugénio's sister; Vasco, the young cell-mate; Abel, the prudent mechanic; and Rute, Vasco's fiancée.