In a large film studio, a director decides to rehearse The Jester, a novella by Alexandre Herculano that suggests a re-reading of the founding of Portugal. In parallel, the film builds a picture of the country in the 1980s, with its unexpected and fragile relationships, hinting at a chapter reaching its close. This is the brittle, disenchanted outlook of two characters who want to leave, travel and experience what cannot be experienced here. José Álvaro Morais’s master work, the film shifts between the intimate and the political as it seeks to give an account of a Portugal undergoing rapid transition.