In 1963, workers in the fictitious city of Antares in the South of Brazil decide to strike, fighting for better salaries and working conditions. Meanwhile, seven locals die: conservative Catholic matriarch and very powerful lady, Quitéria Campolargo; corrupt lawyer Cícero Branco; Spanish anarchist shoemaker Barcelona; drunkard Pudim de Cachaça; prostitute Erotildes; student João da Paz; and pianist Menandro Olinda. Their bodies remaining unburied because of the general strike, they decide to claim to the local authorities the right of being buried. Major Vivaldino Brazão, Judge Quintiliano do Vale, "Colonel" Tibério Vacariano, and the local sheriff are unable to force the workers to return to their normal activities, so the dead citizens disclose dark secrets about the corruption of leaders and dwellers. Once they are corpses, they are not subject to the laws of the living and they can freely speak about the sordid hidden secrets.
