It was based on Brazilian writer Jorge Amado's 1977 novel of the same name, and was written by Aguinaldo Silva, Ricardo Linhares and Ana Maria Moretzsohn.
Iris Gomes da Costa researched expressions cited in the work of Jorge Amado, and colloquial terms of the region, so that the characters spoke with the accent and used the vocabulary of northeastern Brazil.
The fictional city of Santana do Agreste, which according to the storyline is supposed to be an hour by bus from Esplanada in the state of Bahia, was composed of 46 buildings, 2 churches, 8 streets, 2 squares, an abandoned circus and 15 ruins.
The street floors were a reproduction of those made in fiberglass by local artisanin in Laranjeiras, a town in the state of Sergipe.
Production artists Cristina Médicis, Marta Kubitschek and Andréa Penafiel took local objects and saints statues from Sergipe to Rio de Janeiro, in order to compose the scenography.