Two poor, married farmers have recently lost their only child; after a freak visitation, they pry open an alien cocoon to greet their new daughter.
João is the spiritual heir (the term he prefers to bastard) of Manuel Brandão, his dying godfather, and at the same time the political leader of a small party of a disintegrating governmental coalition.
Genji, the illegitimate offspring of a Japanese potentate, goes by the philosophy of "love 'em and leave 'em" as a matter of course. Only when his heart is broken by Awaji does Genji realizes how much pain he himself has caused.