José Renato, geologist, 35 years old, is sent on a fieldtrip to the scrublands of the Sertão, a semi-arid isolated region in the Northeast of Brazil. The goal of his survey is to assess possible routes for a water canal from the region’s only voluminous river. As the fieldtrip progresses, it becomes evident that José Renato shares with the places the same emptiness, a sense of abandonment and isolation. But he presses ahead, continuing the trip in hope that the crossing can somehow transmute his feelings.