Amy Irving plays a melancholy widowed English teacher who no longer believes in love. But the woman has yet to be born who can resist the devastating charm of lawyer Pedro Paul (Antonio Fagundes). Baretto's panorama of broken and healing hearts, spanning three generations and several continents, is cheerful and witty, full of sensuous images and charming melodies.

Stars twinkle over the glorious Rio setting, Carlos Jobim's magnificent music is the stuff of dreams and after watching this movie, every viewer will understand that even silk has its own sound.