Serafina is a romantic secretary from an Italian family. Every day she buys herself a rose and arranges for it to be delivered to her office so she can pretend she's getting flowers from an admirer. She's developed a crush on her French boss, Claude Antoine Geraldi; to her great surprise, one day he proposes to her--intending to get a permanent permit to live in Brazil. He offers her a considerable amount of money in exchange, and she accepts because with that money she'll be able to stop the demolition of the place where she and her neighbors live. For her that's a good-enough deal; but surprise. Later on they actually fall in love with each other. Millionaire Nara Paranhos de Vasconcellos is against their relationship and tries everything to stop it, but Serafina is helped by her sister Terezinha and by old puppeteer Pimpinoni.