the five characters have gathered at a restaurant and are recounting their lives ten years after their return home from mozambique in 1970. the soldier, named abílio, got a job moving furniture for his uncle ilídio's company. ilídio had remarried to a woman named dona isaura who had a stepdaughter named odete. the soldier lived with them and was intrigued by odete. to gain money to take odete out, the soldier started accepting money for sex from a 60-year-old man, a painter.