Raul Ruiz's masterful adaptation of the eponymous nineteenth-century Portuguese novel. The core story centers on Joao, the bastard child of an ill-fated romance between two members of the aristocracy who are forbidden to marry, and his quest to discover the truth of his parentage. But this is just the start of an engrossing tale that follows a multitude of characters whose fates conjoin, separate and then rejoin again over three decades in Portugal,...

Dreverhaven is dead. The city's most feared bailiff, the curse of the poor, the agent of law without compassion--discovered with a knife through his heart. A self-taught lawyer who just passed his exams was the last person to see Dreverhaven alive. Now, the police want to know why he visited the old man, and the young barrister is ready to tell the story of a lifetime.