The film's nonlinear narrative spans nine interweaving stories, most of which take place in the 17th or 18th century and feature fantastical characters such as pirates, nuns, young priests, a cannibal, a sultana, the Devil, and many more.

In 1983, at the age of ten, he starred in Ruiz's City of Pirates and went on to act in The Insomniac on the Bridge (1985), Treasure Island (1985), Three Lives and Only One Death (1996), Genealogies of a Crime (1997) and Mysteries of Lisbon (2010).

[1] The film begins in black and white with a self-aware narrated scene of Love Torn Within a Dream, where producer Paulo Branco welcomes the cast at a celebratory ceremony.

The film explores themes such as a young theology student grappling with doubts over institutional ideologies and hypocrisy, the dangerous power of storytelling, shifting and self-proclaimed denial of identities, as well as piracy, charmed objects that act upon the bearers, maps, and cannibalism, all typical of Ruiz's work.

[3] Dennis Schwartz, of Ozus' World Movie Reviews, gave this "idiosyncratic film" a B− on Rotten Tomatoes, and described it as "an acting exercise to show-off the film-makers rich imagination.