his possessions. Knowing that Pedro Afonso would be unable to pay the debt with money, he requires a different type of payment: the funeral will be at the mansion of the Mendonça e Albuquerque, and Helena will marry him in the future. In return, Pedro Afonso and his family can continue to live in the mansion and receive an allowance from Theobaldo to support themselves. Pedro Afonso lets Helena decide, and the girl agrees to marry Theobaldo. They collaborate to send her to London to finish her studies, and only then should she return to marry the stranger. Theobald counts on having a son with Helena, in order to mix his blood with the blood of the Mendonça e Albuquerque, in order to complete his revenge against Altiva. Ten years later, Helena returns home with Teobaldo, who gives her the factory that he won from Pedro Afonso and had kept closed for years as a wedding present. Their idea is to reopen it to give value to their lands and plantations of sugar cane, thus fulfilling the ideals of Helena's father. However, after her marriage to Theobaldo, she refuses to consummate it, which makes him mad. The conflict lasts the entire story and the two live a story of hate and love, which revolves around the city. Twenty-eight years ago, Altiva's sister, Santa Maria (also known as Santinha), then a teenager, shared a romance with the owner of the British Club, Richard da Silva Taylor. Vexed with the happiness of her sister, who always she hated for her kindness and sympathy, Altiva, who was a married woman with child, took advantage of a drunken Richard and in the dark, pretended to be her sister to sleep with him. Santinha surprises them in bed and Altiva said he was the one taking advantage of her. Santinha breaks up with Richard, who vows never to love another woman. Altiva finds out she is pregnant and travels with Santinha to hide the pregnancy. Traumatized, Santinha drinks to forget, and keeps looking for a new love, but only gets involved with married men. Altiva gives birth to a son, Artemio, and intends to leave him in the trash die of hunger and cold. Shocked, Santinha proposes to bring the baby home, pretending it was the son of a mill worker who abandoned him for not having the means to sustain it. Altiva reluctantly agrees,