Salvador, Bahia - Brazil, alive with the charm of the 1950s, A gang of street kids known as "Capitães da Areia" () are hunted like common criminals. As we draw closer, we see that they are just children, almost a hundred of them, completely abandoned. But they won't be children for long: by the end of this odyssey, many will have become men. A year in the lives of these boys, in which they have incredible adventures, the most wonderful dreams, visit hell, discover sex, death, freedom!