A young girl, so protected by her religious family that she seemingly knows nothing about procreation, insists that her mysterious pregnancy is a miracle. Her distressed bourgeois family decides that she has lost her mind. Oliveira presents José Régio's contemporary play with a highly theatrical approach-a stagelike setting, real-time pacing, static camera-that ironically enhances the latent eroticism of the play. Oliveira: "In order to create the character of Benilde, Régio studied the lives of the saints (who) arrived at violent acts, at situations that were absolutely terrible. Régio transcribes the behavior of the human being, behavior which we cannot doubt; what we can do, however, is to doubt their beliefs. (The film) asks the spectator to engage in a dialogue with it..."