Eighteenth-century Brazil. There is growing concern in this Portuguese colony that gold mining is in decline. The country is being ruled by corrupt colonial officers. Lieutenant Joaquim has made a name for himself as a hunter of gold smugglers. He has been waiting in vain for the reward which he intends to use to buy the freedom of his lover, a black slave. In order to make the money some other way, he agrees to take part in a dangerous expedition to find new veins of gold. He is accompanied by some of his countrymen and a troop of African slaves, indigenous Indios and mestizos. The longer they search, the more his doubts about the mission grow. Gradually he begins to recognise the injustice his country has brought to the colony and sees all too clearly the machinery of oppression. In the jungle, he loses control but his moral standpoint is crystal clear. His lover also makes him see that he must reconsider his convictions and his loyalties. A partly fictional, partly historical account of the life of Brazil’s national hero Joaquim José da Silva Xavier, alias Tiradentes.