In the second half of the eighteenth century, Brazil's gold boom has begun to slow, thrusting Rio de Janeiro into economic difficulties, while Napoleon's rise to power wreaks havoc on all of Europe, causing 15,000 Portuguese citizens, including the king, queen, and their massive court, to seek safety in Brazil.
Joana, one of the many who have fled Portugal, falls in love and marries Mario, the capable son of a troubled Jewish woman, and they give birth to Camila, a spirited, willful girl whose unsettled life mirrors the extremes experienced by her home city.
Influenced by her immoral uncle, Gaspar, the sexually precocious Camila embraces a carnal lifestyle that will haunt her throughout her life. Despite spending time as a nun, then owning and operating an orphanage, she cannot seem to curb her appetites, and her behavior leads to the death of an innocent man and the births of many illegitimate children.
Rio barrels toward independence, led by Emperor Pedro and a wildly argumentative government, while coffee quickly becomes the country's cash crop, leading to the continued importation of slave labor, breaking agreements with Great Britain to ban the practice.
Greed, suffering, persecution, and fear run through the veins of one of the most beautiful cities in the world as it struggles to overcome the hypocrisy and cruelty that threaten to overwhelm it.