A pawn shop proprietor buys used goods from desperate locals--as much to play perverse power games as for his own livelihood, but when the perfect rump and a backed-up toilet enter his life, he loses all control.
In Sã Paulo, Lourenç is the owner of a second hand shop. Little by little, he exchanges cold cash negotiating for pleasure in taking unfair advantage of customers who go to his shop when they are in financial difficulties. Lourenç sees the world as a place in which people, as well as used objects, are for sale - preferably for a vile price. The diversity of people passing through his shop makes him see them as componenets of a great human catalogue. He classifies them according to a characteristic or to the object that is offered to them: "the bride", "the gramaphone man", or "the addict". This process of "transforming into things" of the world will stop when Lourenç has to relate to people using a currency that is strange to him - namely, affection. He is also symbolically disturbed by a foul-smelling drain in the shop. Confronted by characters he imagined were under his control, Lourenç is obliged to reassess his vision of the world. The cast includes representatives of new talent in Brazilian cinema such as Silvia Lourenç (Contra Todos), Alice Braga ( Lower City ) and Flávio Bauraqui (The 12 Labours, O Céµ de Suely).
