The film is about the Classical Brazilian music of the Minas Gerais province during the 18th and 19th centuries. It narrates the story of a slave boy at the end of the 18th century who gains his freedom by means of his extraordinary musical talent and goes on to become a famous composer, Antonio Francisco da Cunha. At the same time, the film tells us about the music today in São João del Rei, a little town in Minas Gerais, focusing on the Orquestra Ribeiro Bastos, the only surviving mulatto orchestra whose origins date back 250 years.