In August 1929, Peixoto was in Paris, on a summer break from his studies in England, when he saw a photograph by André Kertész. The picture of two handcuffed male hands around the neck of a woman who was gazing at the camera became the 'generative' or 'Protean' image for ''Limite,'' in which a man and two women are lost at sea in a rowboat.<ref name=":0"></ref> Their pasts are conveyed in flashbacks throughout the film, clearly denoted by music. One woman has escaped from prison; another has left an oppressive and unhappy marriage; the man is in love with someone else's wife. The unusual structure has kept the film in the margins of most film histories, where it has been known mainly as a provocative and legendary cult film.