Colonel Furtado struggles to keep his lands, the Sobradinho Farm, and win the heart of his cousin Esmeraldina. In the process, he fights big beasts, experiences the taste of a bohemian life in town, fends usurers and thieves off, and uses all his cunning to get rid of haunting entities. His rival is the man he was brought up with, Pernambuco Nogueira, a werewolf.