As a child, Ludo was plucked out of the shantytown where he was born and transported to a world of languid, cosseted luxury. Now twenty-seven, he works high above the sprawling metropolis of Sao Paulo for a vacuous “communications company.” But this is not his world, and this is not a simple ragsto-riches story: Ludo’s destiny moves him around like a chess piece, showing him extremes of opulent excess and abject poverty, taking him to the brink of madness and brutality.