Synopsis
Agostinho is a physic’s teacher at night school. Not really an exceptional job, but not all that bad either. He gives his classes mechanically, automatically, due to repetition over the years. He is a bit over 65, married, one daughter. One day, in the dark classroom while showing slides, he sees a girl masturbating. The next day, she asks him for a lift. Her name is Marcia.
Agostinho becomes interested in the girl. Provokes “chance” encounters, until he begins going out with her. Marcia leads an unstable life, sharing a decadent and dirty apartment with another girl, each one keeping to themselves. Her father is an ex-con, she uses heavy drugs, always broke. Instead of making him shy away, these problems attract Agostinho even more, his behavior begins to change.
Marcia corresponds to Agostinho’s advances only up to a certain point. Agostinho doesn’t seem to understand, suffers because of her refusals. He seeks her out increasingly more, loses his train of thought during class and grows distant at home. And then one day, Marcia tells him that she has AIDS. Agostinho, reserved, suffers even more. He becomes evasive both at home and at work. His encounters with Marcia become aggressive. She tells him she doesn’t want to see him anymore.
Not able to accept the girl’s disdain, Agostinho goes to see her at her apartment and finding her in a drugged daze, injects the blood from a syringe hanging out of her arm into his own arm.
Januária, Agostinho’s wife, notices how depressed he is, respects his pain, tries to help him by taking him to a therapist. Agostinho though, gets tired of waiting to be attended at the doctor’s office and decides to leave, disappointing Januária deeply. As they drive home, Agostinho realizes he has hurt his wife and invites her to dinner, something they haven’t done in years. During dinner, they remember happy times they have spent together, revealing the complicity brought about by years of living together.
Agostinho doesn’t see Marcia again. His health gets worse as time goes by although he continues giving class. He grows thin, his family worries about him. He begins sleeping in his daughter’s old room as he gets worse, until finally being taken to the hospital.
At the hospital, his wife draws closer to him, slowly reviving the bonds that had united them over the years. His family, gathered about, realizes that he is going to die soon. Agostinho asks Januária to go look up Marcia, which she does. She discovers where she is living and takes her to see her husband in the ICU at the hospital.
Both Agostinho and Marcia are frail. They communicate through looks and gestures, sexually arousing each other. Marcia leaves the room and comes upon Januária in the corridor. They look at each other, and seemingly to suddenly understand the situation, Januária expresses her affection for the girl. She doesn’t try to judge her husband, nor understand anything, she merely accepts destiny and the ways of love.