A fable-like tale in the 1920s. After a political upheaval in the African kingdom of Batanga, Queen Niara is overthrown and flees with her daughter, Alika, to Brazil; the two of them settle in the Northeastern heartland, where the princess, disguised as Lúcia, falls in love with Tonho, a farmworker who descends from a legendary king of Batanga, while planning to save her birthplace from the tyrannical Jendal.