18-year-old Mateus leaves the countryside in search for a job opportunity in a São Paulo junkyard.

Once there, Mateus and some other boys become a victim of a work system analogous to modern slavery run by Luca, forcing Mateus to make the difficult decision between working for the man who enslaved him or risking his and his family's futures if he is not complicit.

During an interview with Film Independent on his award-winning directorial debut Sócrates, Brazilian-American filmmaker Alexandre Moratto announced that he was developing an original screenplay about modern slavery and human trafficking in Brazil.

[2] Speaking about the film, Moratto said:[3] Right now I feel like I'm in this really fortunate place of being able to make these films from these original scripts that I've been writing about issues or people or communities or personal matters that are very important to me and that I feel the need to express.The lead role of the film was written by Moratto specifically for Christian Malheiros, whom he discovered during intensive auditions for Sócrates where he was ultimately cast and rose to Brazilian prominence.

Moratto also cast a Brazilian immigrant who worked for six months in a sweatshop while he was conducting research interviews with survivors of human trafficking.