After the unexpected death of his mother, Paco (Fernando Alves Pinto), an aspiring actor from Sao Paulo, longs to leave his native Brazil. Tired of living in squalor, he accepts a "delivery job" from a shady antique dealer and travels to Lisbon carrying a violin filled with uncut diamonds. But when the exchange goes bad, he finds himself on the run from an underworld thug and in the arms of Alex (Fernanda Torres), a beautiful woman caught up in the Portuguese black-market.