 A typical story of the Latin American reality. Macabea is a poor and less educated woman who comes from her small town to a large city in Brazil--Rio de Janeiro. Once there she finds a job but soon loses it due to her lack of education and hygiene, and has to live in a small room with other women in the same condition (working class single women) and only with the illusion (after a visit to a fortune teller) to meet a tall, blond and rich man to fall in love with her an take her away from poverty